A Brother Divided
by Indie-Mod
Summary: Harry Potter. Neville Longbottom. Violet Potter. All potential children of the prophecy. Believed to be Harry's brat twin, Violet, he and Neville are sent away to train at a young age. Then they return, Captains in the Wizarding Army. Not a slash.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

**Author Note: This fic has already been written and completed, so the updates will (hopefully) be quick. There is a little violence in the story and the occasional use of bad language. There will be pairings and NO Slash.**

Prologue

James Potter and his wife made their way up through the small Wizarding town of Hogsmeade, on their way to Hogwarts. The sights and smells brought memories to James from his days visiting this village as a student at the mammoth castle that lay perhaps only a mile away.

As they walked past Honeydukes, the famous sweet-shop, James's tongue almost automatically found its way to his teeth, which had received probably irreversible damage from the produce of the shop. He remembered the time he and his best friend Sirus Black, in an attempt to gain more pocket money, tried to sell a new type of sweet to the owner of the shop, Ambrosius Flume. It didn't take him long to realize that the new item of confection was actually just a fizzing whizzbee with a glamour charm on it (Not that this stopped Sirius from insisting that they invented fizzing whizzbees once the deception was exposed).

James looked over to his wife, Lily. She was being fairly quiet, a change from her usual talkative self. The look on her face almost suggested she was nervous about something, but then occasionally she would smile or quietly giggle to herself.

_Women!_, thought James.

Lily Potter and her husband walked through Hogsmeade on their way to the world famous school, Hogwarts. She was incredibly nervous for two reasons, Albus Dumbledore for one. He had requested a meeting with the couple.

It was obviously extremely important, otherwise why else wouldn't he have simply told them at last night's Order meeting? The Order was the most trustworthy group she knew; if _they_ couldn't be told, then...

And then, of course there was the _other _reason...

What she didn't know at the time, of course, was that it wasn't just one other reason, it was two; she would only learn that particular fact in around nine months.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was not the type of wizard to get nervous about things; in fact, the last occasion he had been anywhere as nervous as this was when he had taken his brother Aberforth on a rehabilitation trip to a goat farm.

This, however, eclipsed that trip. It was his job to tell one of the angriest women he knew (second behind Molly Weasley, and only because he had known her for longer) some potentially heart-breaking news, a prophecy involving her and her family.

He stood up and made his way to the cabinet in his office in order to get his pensive out, the other component – a memory – safely tucked away inside his robe pocket.

He had just sat the pensive down on the desk when he heard the sound of the spiral staircase rotating, indicating the presence of his visitors.

They were here.

All he had to worry about now was _how _to tell them what he had to tell them...

* * *

"Professor!" exclaimed James Potter as he walked into Dumbledore's office, the same smile on his face that he'd always used when trying to convince teachers that he hadn't preformed his latest prank. "How are you?"

"Now James, I am hardly your teacher anymore," Albus responded with a slight smile of his own. "It's Albus to you. And yes you do find me in good health – how are you James, Lily?"

"Fine, just fine Pro- Albus," James replied, chuckling slightly as he looked at his surroundings. "I have to admit, though, it's a bit strange coming back to Hogwarts and not being a student"

"I'm well too, Albus," Lily replied, looking uncertainly at the headmaster. "I'm just slightly confused as to why we're here..."

"Ah Lily, direct as ever, I see," Dumbledore replied with a smile, before his expression became more serious. "Well one of my dislikes, being a teacher, is confusion, so let us remedy it. I don't know if you are aware of this yet, but I have appointed a new Divination teacher– Sybill Trelawney, I believe you may have overlapped in your time at school-"

"That weirdo?" James interjected incredulously. "That Hufflepuff who always wandered round with her head in the clouds? You're going to let _her_ teach children? Well, that settles it; if there's ever a James junior or a James-etta, they will _not_ be taking divination!"

At this Lily blanched slightly then softly smiled, this wasn't lost to Dumbledore's twinkling eyes.

"Well," Dumbledore continued, as though James hadn't interrupted, "as I was saying, during the interview process she gave a prophecy to me – she is a descendent of the famous seer Cassandra Trelawney-"

"Hold on... wasn't she that daft-looking one from Chocolate frogs cards?" James asked, thinking hard.

Lily sighed; "Yes James..." she said, shooting a fond yet exasperated smile at her husband before turning back to Dumbledore.

"Professor, what did the prophecy say?" she asked, a sense of trepidation and anxiousness evident in her voice.

Dumbledore reached into his robes and pulled out a small glass vial with silvery looking liquid inside. He stood and emptied it into the stone basin sitting upon the desk.

"Watch closely, and listen hard," he said, as small almost holographic figure rose from the basin and began to speak:

_**The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches,**_

_**Born as the seventh month dies**_

_**Born to those who have thrice defied him**_

_**And the one shall rise above two who know more**_

_**Evil, thrice the parents have defied.**_

_**There will come a day the one shall be marked**_

_**They will have skills unequaled by all**_

_**And can make the Dark Lord Fall**_

There was silence in the office for a number of minutes; James had a deep pondering look upon his face, Lily looked pale and frightened, and Dumbledore just observed them.

James was the first to speak.

"Albus..." he began, looking uncertainly at the headmaster, "wh... who are those who have thrice defied him?"

"That, James, is simple," Dumbledore replied. "The Longbottoms, who are expecting around early August and you – the Potters."

"Well," James began, a broad grin on his face as he turned to look at his wife, "thank goodness we aren't expecting any little Potters..."

His voice trailed off as he took in the expression on his wife's face.

"Are we?" he asked uncertainly.

Lily nodded.

James woke up around half an hour later in the hospital wing, hearing hushed voiced from beyond a curtain. He struggled to remember the conversation that had previously caused him to 

faint... something about a prophecy... a prophecy involving the Longbottom's unborn child, and...

"_Lily_!" he yelled.

A blur of red hurricaned its way past the curtain and attatched itself to James;

"Lmfy, hmf ddt ouf ell mff our wfre prgnfnt?" said James into his wife; naturally, given how muffled he was, there was no reply.

When Lily finally pulled herself from James he asked the question again;

"Lily, why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"

" I was only 100 sure last night, James," she assured him. "I used a pregnancy tester and it told me – I just wasn't sure when to tell you the news..." she trailed off.

"Oh, Lils!" James replied, smiling broadly and grabbing her in a hug as he laughed for joy, "not _only _have you made me the happiest man in the world, but now our child is potentially going to be the saviour of the world in which I am happy! Now I'm thinking James if it's a boy and James-etta if it's a girl"

_**Eight and a half months later...**_

"JAMES!" yelled Lily

"FRANK!" yelled Alice

"LILY!?" yelled James

"ALICE!?" yelled Frank

"And SIRIUS..." added Sirius, a broad grin on his face as he looked between his four friends.

"Shut up Sirius!" yelled almost everyone, regardless of their current actions.

It was July 31st, and the maternity ward of St. Mungos was packed full; the current inhabitants consisted of Lily and James Potter, Alice and Frank Longbottom, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Albus Dumbledore and three Midvives.

It was approaching midnight when Neville Michael Longbottom was born.

It was just on the verge of being midnight when Violet Olivia Potter was born.

It was midnight almost precisely on the dot when Harry James Potter was born.

Neville came out minus any complications into the arms of a very relieved Midwife, mother and father.

Dumbledore watched, eyes twinkling madly.

Violet came out without any complications, aside from the fact that the seventy year old midwife admitted;

"In all my years, that has to be the loudest new born I have ever encountered!"

Again Dumbledore watched.

Harry came without any complications; the only odd thing about his birth was that, after the first few traditional cries of the newborn, he stopped crying, opened his eyes and took in his surroundings.

Dumbledore still watched.

The chosen one had been born.

* * *

On August the second, Dumbledore called an Order meeting. Most of the Order was there, with only Peter Pettigrew being absent, claiming illness. Everyone in the room stopped talking as Albus stood; everyone knew that, if even half of the rumours they'd been hearing recently were true, then this Order meeting was to be huge.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a saviour in our midst! This savio-" Albus was cut off by shrill screaming from a pink crib just behind the chairs of Lily and James Potter; Violet was screaming once _again._

James laughed as he picked up his daughter

"And here is your savior...potentially," he said, smiling at the group before him as he held his daughter in his arms.

Everyone looked confused, aside from Alastor Moody who just looked angry.

"If you will allow me to explain," Dumbledore said cutting off Moody before he began to shout at a volume that could probably have only been surpassed by Violet, "there has been a prophecy made concerning the three babies in the room; I think it best if you hear for yourselves..."

_**The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches,**_

_**Born as the seventh month dies**_

_**Born to those who have thrice defied him**_

_**And the one shall rise above two who know more**_

___**Evil, thrice the parents have defied.**_

_**There will come a day the one shall be marked**_

_**They will have skills unequaled by all**_

_**And can make the Dark Lord Fall**_

There was an uproar of chatter in the room with many smiling, although just as many looked devastated.

"How can we put trust in three _children_?!" Alastor Moody yelled as he stood up and glared at the Order's leader. "Three days old and saviours? This is beyond a joke Albus; how can you kid about something like that in the middle of these dark times?! People are dying left, right and centre, and you have the cheek- no- the _audacity_ to say that babies can do what aurors and even you cannot do!? I'm losing my patience with you, old friend..."

"ALASTOR!" Albus interjected, looking pointedly at the old Auror. "You will calm down this instant! I am _not_ some kind of idiot; I realize that a baby cannot defeat Voldemort-" many in the room flinched, but Albus ignored this and continued speaking, "-which is why I now need to discuss with you my plan for the children."

The parents of the children exchanged worried glances at Albus' statement.

"Now, Alastor," Dumbledore began, "put yourself in Voldemort's robes – oh please Dedalus, fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself-; which poses the biggest threat to you? A half-blood boy, a half-blood girl or a pure-blood boy?"

"The boys, Albus though it is difficult to see which of the bloods he would go for – he is a halfblood yet he has a pureblood obsession..."

"So, Alastor you agree that young Violet is fairly safe?" Alastor nodded "So then if the boys are at highest risk, then they would need some sort of training?" Again there were nods, not just from Moody.

"If we train only the boys then surely they would know more than Violet – who Voldemort doesn't see as a threat." People in the room began to smile, more nodding followed as they began to acknowledge Dumbledore's insight.

"I believe that Violet Potter is the chosen one; however, Neville and Harry must be trained from a young age, as they will be invaluable to us in the future should anything happen to Violet. I have arranged for both boys to be trained all things possible starting from the age of eight. They will leave home, they must become powerful and our weapon in this war!"

People stood up and cheered, gathering around Violet Potter, with Harry and Neville forgotten by even their parents.

It was a sign of what was to come.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One – Lessons for Life

As Harry and Violet Potter grew older, it soon became clear that Violet was an extremely demanding girl; in fact, one could compare her to a female version of her cousin Dudley Dursley, although she didn't resemble a small hippo. If she wanted something, she would get it, for no other reason than that she was her parents' 'little princess'. By the age of two she was starting to speak, her first words being "No!", "Want!" and "Violet". By the age of three, the most common phrase to come out of her mouth was "I want", followed by the name of some toy or another.

Harry had a similar upbringing to Violet despite what was planned for his future, though his sister received more attention simply because she demanded it. By the age of two for Harry his first words were "Sorry", "fly", and "Violet". When he reached three however he was a much more accomplished speaker than his sister, often having fairly understandable conversations with people. The phrase young Harry used the most was "Sorry, Violet".

It was on the day the twins reached four that Harry began to be treated differently. Harry understood the concepts of birthdays enough to know he was a year older, and he may be lucky enough to receive a present. Violet, by contrast, understood one thing about birthday parties; she got things.

A small party had been organised for the twins. There had been a cake and balloons, everything to expect from a child's party. The thing that made the biggest difference, though, were the presents. Violet received, in total, one hundred and eighty gifts, which still wasn't enough for her; Harry only received five, and he was overwhelmed. Violet opened her presents, which took some time, receiving gifts such as a karaoke set and lots of dresses; Harry's, as it turned out, were books.

Over the next year Harry was taught daily by an old woman from the village the Potters lived in how to read and write which expanded his vocabulary immensely. He was an extremely fast learner and, having mastered these skills, was able to read more complicated books- more specifically, his parents' magic books.

On the twins' fifth birthday, Violet received over two hundred gifts, including a pony and state of the art dolls' house; temper tantrums ensued regarding the quality of the aforementioned presents. Harry received his parents' old school books and access to the Potter library. He made his way through them like nothing ever seen, and soon enough began to perform basic spells. By his sixth birthday he could wandlessly perform as many spells as a first year at Hogwarts.

On the twins' sixth birthday Violet received three-hundred gifts, some ridiculously expensive looking Goblin-made jewellery, although these still failed to be good enough for her. Harry received permission from his parents to use the grounds of Potter Manor to run and get fit on, along with an owl he named Hedwig, as well as the opportunity to meet another friend.

* * *

Neville Longbottom had a similar upbringing to Harry Potter, though he received much more love and attention from his parents than young Harry did. Similarly to Harry he learned to read and could perform a certain amount of wandless magic.

It was on his sixth birthday that he met his first friend.

He was given some nice new clothes to wear and a wet comb to put through his hair. His mother and father side-along apparated to Potter manor with him. The first thing he heard when he arrived in the back garden was shouting

"But Mummy! I want an owl!" screamed a high pitched voice

"Violet, honey, you already have one, remember?" replied a stressed sounding Lily Potter. "Hoots, Feathers and Beakums; that's three owls!"

"They're horrible scrawny owls! I want Harry's owl! It's far nicer than any of mine!" came the reply

"Oh, Princess, you can have his one… but wouldn't it be nice if you swapped one of your owls for Harry's? It's fairer to him, after all…"

"NO! They are my nice beautiful owls! Mummy why are you doing this...it's always Harry, he's trying to ruin my birthday!" snivelled Violet

"Oh dear Princess, I didn't mean to upset you... HARRY! Come here and apologise to your siste- Oh hello Alice, hello Frank and Neville – Happy Birthday young man" said a smiling Lily Potter, shifting her focus off her daughter to talk to the new arrivals before turning to call back into the house. "JAMES! They're here!"

Two people walked out of the house, both responding to Lily Potter; one to meet visitors, the other to apologise to his sister for something he was completely unaware he had done.

"Ah ha! James old buddy! How are we this fine weekend?" boomed Frank Longbottom

"You know damn well Longbottom...being a Tornadoes fan" James replied, a somewhat sullen tone in his voice.

"Oh yes… didn't they beat Pride of Portree 570-30 yesterday... wait you're a Portree fan aren't you!?" continued Frank with glee, the smile on his face belying the innocent tone he asked the question in.

"Oh shut up Frank, at least we've won the league cup within the last century!" countered James

"Men" sighed Alice Longbottom to Lily and Violet Potter, prompting a brief laugh from Lily before Violet spoke.

"I'm Violet Potter, the chosen one and it's my birthday; where are your presents for me?" she asked, looking pointedly at the new arrival.

Alice looked slightly taken aback but none the less reached into her bag and pulled out some shrunken parcels, undoing the shrinking charms as she reached in. Violet looked at the two parcels and said;

"Only two..." Violet said, sounding almost frustrated, before she shrugged. "Give them to me."

Alice looked very taken aback as the girl grabbed the larger of the two and opened it up to find a 'Merlin and Morgana' doll, which she tossed aside with disdain after a brief look at it.

"This isn't very good, I have one already; give me the other one," she said, reaching out for the other present before Alice pulled it away,

"Actually, this is for your brother," she said, prompting Harry to look over from his position next to his father's legs, where he had been looking at Neville as the other boy sat in a similar position next to his Mother's legs.

Harry wandered over and tentatively took the package, thanking Alice profusely. He opened it to find a book called "Flying – All the methods" by N.O. Gravitey.

"Th... thank you so much..." he said, looking with a wide-eyed grin up at Alice. "How did you know? I love everything to do with flying!"

"I didn't _know_," Alice said, shrugging nonchalantly. "It's just that Neville over here has a copy of it- he must have read it a thousand times by now- and I guessed that boys of your age have the same interests; say hello to Harry, Nev."

Neville made his way over to Harry while the boys' parents chatted away;

"Hi... I'm Neville, do you really like flying?" he asked

"I'm Harry," Harry replied, nodding in response to the introduction before he shrugged. "Yeah but not with a broom, I mean I can do it well and all, it just seems so… limiting, if you know what I mean?" Harry replied

Neville did know what Harry meant, and they got on like a house on fire, spending most of the afternoon chatting away before they were called inside by their parents. As Neville and Harry wandered into the Potter's living room, Frank, Alice, Lily and James were all sitting down looking at the boys.

"Harry, Neville, sit down; we need to tell you something," said Frank. The boys took a seat and looked between the two sets of parents, a look of confusion on their face.

"Now, boys did you have fun today?" asked Lily. Neville piped up;

"Yeah! We talked about flying and books and did magic and..." The looks on the adults' face was enough to make Neville go quiet, though he could tell that it wasn't anger.

"Really!? That's well – that is excellent news! So you two are friends?" said James, smiling. There was a chorus of resounding 'yes's' from the two boys.

"Well, how would you like to spend a lot more time together?" he continued. He had been briefed by Albus to introduce the two boys at this age, and build their relationship. The only reason they hadn't been introduced at an earlier age was so that they could develop core skills, such as reading, writing and basic magic, which Albus had said it was imperative for the boys to possess. It was now time for them to become a team.

What was to happen that night was a suggestion by Alastor Moody, who had explained that it was a method apparently used in the Aurors as a team building exercise; Dumbledore had agreed with Moody, saying that it would give the boys an 'edge of danger and recklessness'.

"Well, boys," James continued, after a second chorus of yes's had ended, "how would you like to go camping?"

"That would be great Mr. Potter!" Neville said. Harry, although just as keen on the idea as Neville, couldn't help but feel slightly suspicious.

He might be ignored most of the time, but he nevertheless had a keen mind, and something told him that there was more going on here than he and Neville were being told…

* * *

Not long after the conversation between the boys and their parents, Dumbledore and Moody arrived. During a long conversation with the adults, with Neville and Harry sitting outside the living room, wandering what was going on, Violet Potter wandered downstairs. having gotten bored with her mountains of presents and deciding instead to go to her never-before-failed favourites pastime, taunting her brother.

"Mummy and Daddy are throwing you out!" she sneered, indicating the room where their parents were currently talking. "They hate you and love me, because I am the chosen one – I am going to save the world!"

"Go away, ugly!" Neville shouted as he stood up, angry at the insults towards his best friend. "You smell and we don't want to talk to you- and Harry isn't getting thrown out we are going on a camping trip – and you're not!"

"How dare you! Do you know who I am! I'm Violet Potter, I'm the chos-"

"Go away!" came the reply from Neville. Violet stomped away angrily to find her parents to tell on Harry for Neville's insults – though she didn't know they were deep in discussion with Moody and Dumbledore, only a room away.

"What was she talking about Harry?" Neville said to Harry after Violet was out of earshot. "What did she mean when she said she was the chosen one?"

"It's what my mum and dad call her," Harry answered. "Professor Dumbledore told us that she is the one who will stop that dark wizard Voldemort."

"Well that's stupid; I bet she can't even do magic yet! And how does the Professor know; I'll bet it could easily be me or you! In fac-" Neville was cut short by Mad-Eye-Moody bursting from the living room door, from where he hobbled over to the boys, grabbed them by the collars, and then disapparated.

* * *

They reappeared in a forest, where, the boys didn't know. Harry looked around, he could see the pink of the sky shining through the trees – it was sunset. His thought were interrupted by a gruff voice belonging to the man who had brought them there;

"Right, you two," he said in a gruff and threatening voice, "I might come back for you soon- and then again, I might not. Until then, just try not to get yourself killed… if you can manage that."

And with those kind, kind parting words, he dissaparated away.

After a few moments of stunned silence, Neville was the first to speak.

"What the heck! What are they up to! This isn't camping, this is... I don't know what this is! Are they trying to kill us?"

Harry, however, wasn't listening to Neville, and was instead thinking about their next course of action. _OK so if we're stuck here for who knows how long then we're going to have to make shelter, find food and water, make a fire and we should probably find out where we are..._

Harry voiced his ideas to Neville, who agreed, so they set about gathering sticks for a fire and larger pieces of wood for a make-shift shelter. They soon had a fire pit made- lighting the fire with a quick burst of wandless magic- and a shelter set up. _Things could be worse_, thought Harry as the sun finally set, leaving the two boys bathing the two boys in the orange glow of the fire as they both drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The boys had been in the woods for four days when the big incident happened. They had been surviving on berries and two or three rabbits and had discovered a freshwater stream nearby – they were expecting to picked up any day.

It was during the night when Harry woke up in order to feed the fire.

_Stupid adults, dumping us in the woods and calling it camping! I bet Violet is loving it... _he thought, fuming inwardly as he filled his arms with sticks from the pile they had been making to provide them with a ready supply of fuel for the fire…

Then, he heard it.

_**Crack...thump. **_

_What the…? _thought Harry, looking around himself in confusion.

_**Crack...thump. **_

There it was again!

Wait… this time it was louder… like it was coming closer…

Suddenly a huge black beast launched itself at Harry from the woods.

"Agh! Nev! Nev!" screamed Harry, the large black dog on top of him, fangs bared.

Neville woke up, and looked over at his friend groggily, before his eyes went wide and he rapidly stood up ready to help, even if he didn't know what he could do. Lacking any more elaborate plan, Neville did the first thing he thought of; he picked up a rock and threw it.

"Oi! Over here!" he yelled, immediately regretting it: the beast responded and did go over there. It tore itself away from Harry who was holding it by its neck by and arms length, and bounded towards Neville jumping on top of him aiming for his neck.

Harry acted admirably, he didn't panic, he kept his cool. He calmly but quickly reached for a piece of wood from the fire, that only one end was lit on. He picked it up and hit the beast with it.

The beast howled...then swore. _Hold on...swore? _Thought Harry, then things clicked as he looked upon the familiar form of Sirius Black.

* * *

After the boys had been apparated back to Potter manor, checked over for injuries and had a decent sleep, they awoke feeling the need for an explanation. They were sat down by their parents, Dumbledore and Moody in the manor's living room, where Dumbledore began to speak.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the two of you feel that you are deserving of an explanation. The exercise you were just upon was one of survival and teamwork. Before you ask why you were on an exercise or any other questions typical to young minds such as yours, I would ask that you allow me to explain fully."

"As you know- or perhaps you don't, Neville, as you are an only child- you boys haven't had a normal upbringing. You have been intensely taught skills for life- primarily reading and writing so far, although I understand that you have both already moved on to master the basics of magic; the reports I have received of your camping trip indicate an admirable control of wandless magic-, and over the next two years you will begin to get as fit as you can."

"Now boys, here is the news you do not know; in two years, you will leave home"

Dumbledore paused to let the information sink in, only to realise that the expressions' on the boys' faces were not what he expected; they weren't shocked, sad, or even angry.

No, if anything, their expressions were… cool, calculating.

"You will both be trained by the best teachers available for however long it takes," Dumbledore continued. "Actually, you will be part of the newly formed WA- the Wizarding Army, based on the muggle equivalent; it was actually inspired by your very own parents, Harry, who saw it as a means to combat Voldemort where Aurors would no longer prove sufficient."

"Wait..." Neville said, looking uncertainly at the headmaster. "So we won't be going to Hogwarts, or living at home...will we still see out families?"

"No, my boy," Dumbledore replied, with what appeared to be genuine regret in his voice. "I'm afraid the training you will be receiving goes far beyond what is taught at my institution... and as for your other questions, no, you shall not be living at home, and I very much doubt you will see your family very often. However, you will be with each other for all of the training, you are to become an unstoppable team."

"Why?" asked Harry, getting to the point.

"Harry, dear", Lily answered, "You need to help us defeat Voldemort– you need to help your sister!"

"So, I'm going away because of her..." Harry said, sounding like he was talking at least half to himself, before he looked curiously back at Dumbledore. "And is she coming?"

"No, Harry," Dumbledore replied, shaking his head. "Violet will have a normal life; it is all part of what is know as a prophecy, which informs us that;"

_**The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches,**_

_**Born as the seventh month dies**_

_**Born to those who have thrice defied him**_

_**And the one shall rise above two who know more**_

_**Evil, thrice the parents have defied.**_

_**There will come a day the one shall be marked**_

_**They will have skills unequaled by all**_

_**And can make the Dark Lord Fall**_

"I believe your sister is the one the prophecy speaks of, while you and your new team-mate are the other two. What we are doing is ensuring that you two know more, thus fulfilling the prophecy while also using it to our advantage by creating two warriors for the war!" Dumbledore said.

"How do you know?" Harry asked simply.

Dumbledore was stumped by this simple question. The truth was, of course, that he didn't _know_- he was just guessing most of it-, but, while he didn't like to blow his own horn, he trusted his judgement.

"I know these things, Harry," he said finally, chuckling in a reassuring manner, as though he was amused at the boy's inquisitiveness.

"To tell you the truth…" Harry said after a moment's reflection, "I'm… well, I'll be glad to get away from Violet; I'd just… I'd like to get away from her attitude and become something _I_ would like to be!"

Harry barely even registered the saddened expression now on his mother's face and the angry one on his father's; having said his piece, he was now waiting to see how Neville would react.

After a long, quiet period of thought, Neville finally spoke.

"I am happy too. In a way I'm sad I won't be normal, but Mum, Dad I know you love me and want this for me, so I'm with Harry!"

"Good lads!" Moody said "You need to be congratulated for your performance in the forest, by the way. Most kids your age would have wet themselves and cried for their Mummies; you, though, you gripped the bull by its horns. You actually fared better than many aurors I know- including your father, Potter-, and as for that dog you burned… good job"

However, neither Harry or Neville were listening to the praise; all they could think about was the hard, uncertain future that lay before them.

Even as Harry thought about his fear, however, he was also reflecting on some advice that his muggle Grandfather, Tom Evans, had told him shortly before his death.

_Harry, my boy, being brave isn't about not being afraid… No, it's about being afraid but going ahead anyway; remember that, and you will succeed. Don't listen to what you rotten sister says; rise above it, I believe in you and I know that you… when crunch time comes, you'll be the one to go ahead anyway. _

Harry then resolved then and there to live up to his Granddad's words and hopes; he was going to go ahead anyway.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Doors of a corridor

Chapter Two – Doors of a corridor.

While Violet, Neville and Harry grew up, it is important to note that Voldemort was far from inactive as the children who it had been foretold would defeat him prepared for the inevitable confrontation.

By the time Harry was saying things like "Sorry" and "fly", aged two, Voldemort's forces had risen to dangerous levels, and Aurors were having increasingly more trouble keeping them at bay and preventing muggles from learning the truth. By the time Harry was three, the numbers of the dark army had risen to a level above the Aurors, and could have maybe even taken the ministry or a small country if the skills of all of them had been equal; at least a third of their number had only been permitted to wear the mask of a Death Eater due to their pureblood status without possessing any actual skill as wizards.

By the time Harry was four, Voldemort had taken Azkaban, as well as claiming a similar Island stronghold known as Morsmodre Fortress. The only thing more feared than 'The Two Islands' was Voldemort himself.

Things got a little more hopeful by the time Harry reached five with the formation of an official Wizarding army, with many joining due to the lowered qualifications than aurorship needed and good pay offered. By the time of Harry and Neville's 'camping-trip', both sides of the dark and light were equally balanced, though Voldemort held more power due to the astronomical levels of fear people felt for him. By this point there were three weapons in his fear arsenal;

One, himself. People refused to say his name, with speculation rife throughout the wizarding world that he might be even more powerful than Dumbledore himself.

Two, his fortresses. Nobody knew what went on in Azkaban, though rumours suggested low-level prisoners were experimented upon, dementors bred and inferi were created. Even with those rumours, Azkaban still seemed like a five-star hotel compared to what people had heard went on in Morsmodre fortress...

Three, his elites. This was a small group of loyal and powerful death-eaters, who led his attacks and were distinguished by their silver masks. The rumours said that only someone as powerful as Voldemort or Dumbledore could best them in a duel. Known elites included Bellatrix LeStrange, Lucius Malfoy and Bartiemus Crouch Junior, widely seen as somewhat of an apprentice to Voldemort.

It is important to note that Voldemort wasn't a stupid man; once he knew about the prophecy's full contents, he thought about it logically and decided that it would be best to stay away from the Potter girl; if he didn't 'mark her as his equal', she wouldn't be a threat.

Neville and Harry would have to become something special in order to succeed where others were failing in terms of defeating dark forces.

--

Harry and Neville left to join the WA- the Wizarding Army- on their eighth birthday. Harry didn't get a decent farewell from his family as they were too busy watching Violet opening her presents- which had now reached even more ridiculous numbers; she was almost at the point of receiving one present for every day of the past year-, but he did however receive one very special present.

_Harry awoke on the day he was to leave for the army, subsequently looking around his room, crammed full with books. Everything was as it should be, except for… something wasn't _quite _right…_

_There._

_There was a present at the foot of his bed. He reached forward, picked up the card attached to it, opened it and read:_

_**Dear Harry, **_

_**You are reading this on your eighth birthday, the day I have been told you are to leave your family to train for some years. I may or may not be with you at this point in your life. If I am well, I hope I am being a good Grandfather, though I can't help but feel, after seeing how self-centred Violet and Dudley have become, that you are my only success as a Granddad (Don't tell them I said that!). **_

_**Truthfully though, Harry, if I am no longer with yo,u then I know I can rest easily in my grave, knowing that I have helped to produce a strapping, good hearted person like you. I do love your Parents, your aunt and uncle, their son and your sister, but I feel as if you know more good than them…**_

_**Especially your sister; she might not desire to dominate others through force, but with her constant desire to be praised for an action she has yet to even attempt, I feel she knows more bad than good. **_

_**Harry… for all my doubts about my own skills, I know that you can make your family change, and all the magic and training in the world cannot take from you the qualities of good you have. If you can, in whatever small way, pass on those qualities to others, than I know that you shall do so.**_

_**Know that wherever you are… wherever you may go… I love you more than anything, **_

_**Granddad.**_

_Harry had tears in his eyes as he read the letter over and over again; his muggle Grandfather had been killed by Voldemort for being related to his mother only a couple of years ago. He eventually reached for the present. It was a black leather wristband with a watch on it; the watch-face he recognized as his grandfathers', though where the wristband from it had gone he didn't know. _

_Overcome by emotion and gratitude, for a few moments, as he sat alone in his room, he openly wept for his deceased grandfather. _

When Mad-Eye Moody came and picked Harry up, after a final murmur of goodbye to his parents- who were _still _fawning over Violet-, he left.

--

He arrived on a large concrete parade square with billets (accommodation) surrounding it. Neville arrived soon after and the now inseparable duo walked to each other, wishing the other a happy birthday.

"Potter! Longbottom!" a man with a large moustache and cane suddenly yelled at them from one of the billets; they'd been so caught up in their arrival that they'd forgotten to properly look around themselves. "Start running, NOW!!"

After running for the next two hours, even their high fitness levels were struggling to get them through the assigned task by the end. When the man came back out again there was a brief glimmer of shock in his eye, though he quickly regained his tough exterior.

"Well," he said, looking at them in approval, "you two are made of tougher stuff than I thought! Well done. I am Colonel Wilson, head of the Wizarding army- I spent thirty years in the muggle army after I graduated from Hogwarts. Am I correct in thinking that you two are to be the top soldiers we have?"

"Well!?" he shouted at them when there was no immediate reply. "Are you?"

"Yes Sir!" came the reply

"Good; you learn fast," Wilson said, nodding briefly in approval. "Over the next five or six years you will be taught in everything seen as useful to your final goal by experts in the field. This includes magic, combat and muggle-activities. Any questions?"

"No sir!" the two boys replied.

"Good. Head to Billet no.27- that will be your accommodation for the next while- and get some rest; your training starts tomorrow."

--

And train the boys did. From the ages of eight to fifteen they became warriors. By the age of eleven they knew enough to graduate Hogwarts, and could beat most men in a fight whether they were replying on magic or non-magical methods of combat.

When the boys got to the age of ten, they received their first rank – Lance Corporal. On their first dinner in the Officer's mess, one of the friendlier officers dropped a newspaper in front of them.

"Hey Harry" he said, chuckling slightly, "fancy a laugh? Read this!"

Glancing down at the paper, Harry could only stare incredulously at the headline before him.

_**Violet Potter captures heart of the nation! **__By Rita Skeeter_

_The 'Wizard Wonders' competition came to a dramatic conclusion yesterday, with ten year old Violet Potter taking gold in the talent competition. Other contestants could only look on in amazement as the young beauty sung her way to first place, with what can only be described as the voice of an angel. The young star sung a selection of songs to beat second place, Herbert the Yodelling Hinkypunk and Fred and George Weasley's stand up act, in third. _

_In an interview with me yesterday the young starlet said;_

"_I always knew I would win; I have such a beautiful voice! I know this will help me on my way to fame!"_

Harry stopped reading there, vague memories of Violet on her karaoke machine filling his mind.

_How the hell did she do that...?_ he thought, his mind almost unable to believe the information before him._ She can't sing for toffee! _

The sergeant who had handed him the newspaper obviously agreed with Harry,

"Harry," the sergeant who had handed him the newspaper said, clearly uncertain if he should say this but evidently feeling like he should regardless, "no offence to your sister or anything, man, but... well, I was in charge of security at the competition, and she was _terrible_! I mean it was worse than a banshee singing Tina Turner's greatest hits! Those comedy twins should have won by a country mile..."

"I'm not going to argue," Harry chuckled, giving the man a reassuring smile. "I remember her singing as a toddler, and I _still_ have nightmares about it!"

Colonel Wilson obviously overheard their conversation, as he put down his own food and walked over to stand beside his two main protégés.

"If you can keep a secret," he said rather loudly, "Your parents gave a large packet to the judges of that contest– heard the minister talking about it at the last war meeting!"

"Really?" said Neville, "that doesn't sound like your parents at all, why, you- oh, wait, no; that sounds _exactly_ like your parents!"

_Sounds like they're a right old happy family now that I'm gone… _Harry reflected to himself, barely even registering the words of his friend and trainers around him.

He wasn't sure what was worse; that he'd been forgotten that easily by his own _family_…

Or that he actually wasn't that bothered about it.

­­­­­­­­­­­­ --

At the age of eleven both boys had progressed enough that they knew more than most fully-grown wizards, and could beat most aurors in a fight- using both magical and non-magical means of combat, naturally-, as well as having been promoted to full corporals. They would often laugh at the headlines in the papers informing Britain about Violet Potter going to Hogwarts, particularly the part about how the sorting hat was to be considered being put into retirement as it had put her in Slytherin, before the 'problem' had been quickly fixed.

By the age of twelve the boys were sergeants, and were the envy of all the men in the army compound due to their ability to defeat any of them in a fight; the boys had even been known to take on around eight aurors at a time and win. The thing they were most pleased about was the fact that they had achieved their dream; they could fly without the aid of brooms.

It was when the boys were twelve they received their first mission.

--

"STOP!" yelled Lieutenant Greer, the officer in charge of the fighting simulators and ranges on the army compound; Harry and Neville had just completed their latest practice session. "OK, Neville 89 accuracy, and Harry... 95; good job, both of you, considering you were using two wands at a 700 meter range..."

Greer was about to continue with more nitty gritty statistics when slow clapping interrupted him, prompting the three of them to turn around and see General Wilson walking towards them.

"Excellent, lads," he said, nodding in approval at the two boys. "Just what I like to see and hear. Now I have news for you both; Lieutenant you are dismissed."

"Yes, sir," was the reply as Greer promptly left the range.

"Now, boys," Wilson said, turning to look at the remaining soldiers, "I have been asked to send two special forces on a rescue mission; I chose you as the mission is relevant to you and you are two of the best we have."

"Right then," he continued, speaking quickly- time was always of the essence on a rescue mission-, "so here is the sit-rep (situation report;) a girl has been kidnapped at Hogwarts school."

The boys struggled to hide their shock at this revelation; Hogwarts had traditionally always been portrayed as being impregnable.

"She is being held internally," Wilson continued. "The identity and motives of her abductor are unknown, but we do know that there is some sort of monster in the location she is being held. Her precise whereabouts within the school are unknown; we need you to find out the location, get there and save her- her parents are extremely worried. Do you accept this mission?"

"Yes sir!" came the quick reply, both boys eager for a chance to use their skills for an actual purpose for once.

"Good, suit up then boys!"

Harry and Neville sprinted to the armoury and found their favoured outfits. Neville wore baggy combat trousers with a black t-shirt and long coat and heavy boots. Harry preferred more lightweight and went for skinny black jeans, calf length boots with pointed toes and a black, tight vest. He also charmed his fairly long hair to spike out(1). Neville's choice of weapon was a broadsword and throwing axe –and obviously two wands. Harry went for a light sword and two handheld daggers along with his wands. As they finished dressing (in less than one minute) Wilson came over with their portkey, this one a battered old army helmet.

"Right then, boys, this is set to take you there in about thirty seconds," he said, placing the helmet in Harry's hands before he smiled at them both in an almost fatherly manner. "I need you to survive this and succeed; I trust you boys more than you know, and you are more than capable of completing this mission."

With that said, he stepped back from them as they both took a hold of the helmet, his expression that of the military commander once again. "Before you go though are there any final questions?"

"Yes General, just one," Harry asked. "Who is the hostage we are going to be rescuing?"

"Her name, Harry, is Ginny Weasley."

AN; (1) Google image search Bill Kaulitz, for Harry's hair.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three- The brothers first mission

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

**Apologies for the ridiculously big gaps between certain paragraphs in earlier chapters; they have been fixed. Thanks to all reviewers and those who have put the story on alert and favourites.**

Chapter Three- The Brothers first mission

The Students of Hogwarts were all cooped up in the great hall together, many huddling together in fear at the news that a girl had been taken down into the Chamber of Secrets, which had been the subject of so much rumour and fear over the last year. Some sixth years had stumbled up on a message written in blood on a wall; _her skeleton shall lie in the chamber forever_. The students had been immediately briefed to get to the Great Hall where the teachers could watch them and guarantee their safety.

There was suspicion that this was a Death Eater plot, which at least served to answer some of the questions that the students had asked about Dumbledore's reaction. As soon as he had arrived in the great hall he had whistled for his companion phoenix, Fawkes, to come to him, subsequently giving the bird a very official-looking piece of parchment and whispering something to it that none of the students had heard before vanishing. The phoenix had subsequently returned a few minutes later, this time carrying a note that a few students at the front of the hall saw and read; _Your two are coming. _

The situation was getting worse however. Violet Potter took it upon herself to calm her followers– what she called the other students; nobody could honestly claim to be Violet's 'friend'– and climbed up onto a nearby table, having decided to grace the students with a performance of one of her songs entitled 'Nobody's Perfect (Except Me)'.

"OK," Violet yelled, clapping her hands together loudly in an attempt to attract attention, "everyone needs to calm down; no matter how bad things get, _I'm_ still here, and so is my talent! This seems like a good time for you all to hear my new song..."

Before anyone could react to that comment, Violet was interrupted by the doors of the great hall banging open and two figures striding in.

One of these figures was fairly tall, and heavyset with muscle, possessing a crew-cut hairstyle and currently dressed in combat trousers, a t-shirt and a long coat.

The second figure was just as tall, but gave the impression of being more agile while still retaining a significant amount of muscle, as demonstrated by the good view of his arms and chest provided by his vest. His hair was long and black with blonde streaks and it pointed out backwards. Both of the new arrivals carried swords and a wand on each arm, their extra weapons concealed from the students gathered before them.

"Actually," the heavier-set boy said, "I don't think there's _ever_ a good time to hear you; from what I have heard you can't sing very well!"

As though he'd only just realised other people were in the room, he turned and smiled at the sea of faces spread out before him. "Oh, hey everyone! I'm Neville Longbottom-"

"Nev, that's enough," his partner said, before he turned to face the headmaster.

"Professor Dumbledore, Sergeant Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, reporting for your mission."

There was an audible gasp in the room as everyone looked between the two boys and occasionally Violet Potter who looked livid. However many of the female population of Hogwarts eyes lingered on Harry longer than they should have, surveying him.

"Ah yes, thank you, sirs," Dumbledore replied, either unaware or unconcerned about the reaction to Harry's introduction. "Now, I believe time is of the essence, so I shall fill you in on all the information we have here and now."

"The Chamber of Secrets- where the missing girl is said to have been taken- is a myth, rumoured to have been created by Salazar Slytherin himself prior to his departure from the school due to his disagreements with the other founders. It was opened once before over fifty years ago, resulting in the death of student Myrtle McLeod. Over the course of the last year, there have been a number of students petrified, though mandrake is the medicine for that one-"

"Right, thanks," Harry said, nodding briefly at the headmaster before he looked back at his partner; it was fairly clear that they'd already learned everything that was known about the attacks. "OK, Nev, think about this; we're dealing with something left by Salazar Slytherin, a guy who was known to have a _bit_ of a thing for snakes… and the king of the snakes, known for its ability to kill and petrify its victims, is..."

"A basilisk!" said Neville grinning, catching on to what Harry was saying.

"Precisely," Harry said, nodding briefly before he glanced back at Dumbledore. "Just to confirm, were all petrified students found near a reflective surface or viewing apparatus of some kind?"

"Well, two were found by a mirror and one near a puddle of water; of the other two, one was holding a camera and the other was in the presence of a ghost…" Dumbledore replied, looking uncertainly at the young boy.

"Right, so that's the _how _of the petrification sorted, all that's left is how a basilisk would get around…" Harry muttered, a calculating look on his face before he turned to look at Dumbledore once again, a calculating look on his face. "Quick question; where did Myrtle die?"

"The girls bathroom on the sixth floor...?" was the response, the question evident in the old man's tone; evidently he failed to follow where the young boy was going with this current line of inquiry.

"Pipes!" Harry said, snapping his fingers as a broad grin spread across his face. "I think, professor, that we have found our chamber!"

--

Harry was livid. He and Neville had asked how to get to the bathroom, but while Dumbledore had agreed to show them, he also insisted that the students go too, so that they could learn from the boys' type of magic while also being 'protected' by him.

_Egocentric old fool_, Harry thought to himself.

Quite frankly, as good as Dumbledore's reputation was, Harry doubted the old man could _actually _do anything to a _basilisk_; given that snake's notoriously magic-proof scales, he had a feeling that he and Neville wouldn't be relying very strongly on their magical weapons for this particular fight…

They soon arrived at the bathroom, with students filling it and the corridor outside, regardless of Harry and Neville's attempts to force them back. Immediately, the thing the boys were drawn to was the excessively large sink that took up the centre of the room. Harry nodded to Neville, confirming that the two of them were thinking the same thing about the sink, but just as he was about to investigate further, a powerful burst of magic from his partner forced him to dive out of the way as the sink exploded in a shower of dust and small pieces of rubble.

"What the _hell_, Neville?" Harry yelled at his friend, staring in frustration at his long-time ally. "Ginny could be _right_ below us! You could have just crushed her!"

"Calm it, Harry," Neville replied, a certain hostility evident in his tone. "We needed to be quick; this was the best way to do it!"

Sighing inwardly, Harry decided this wasn't the time to press the issue; maybe he and Neville could talk about that once the hostage was rescued…

"Right, whatever," he said dismissively, as he turned around to walk towards the hole. "Let's just go…"

With that, he turned around so that his back was to the hole, leant back, and simply fell into the gaping chasm below him.

"Now _that's _more like it!" grinned Neville, moving forward to do the same before he paused at the edge to look at the students. "Oh, don't any of you idiots try and follow us down; too dangerous for kids like you… and old guys like Dumbles, of course!"

Before anyone could react, Neville had jumped down the hole after Harry, whooping as he went, leaving some very angry people and some very giggly girls behind him

--

Neville glided to a halt at the bottom of the hole and stood next to Harry, the current tension between forced to one side in favour of completing their mission. They both walked forward until they reached a large bronze door with many snakes patterned onto it.

"REDUCTO!" bellowed Neville at the obstacle, almost as soon as they saw it.

"Neville! What the-?" Harry began, only to be interrupted by the sound of falling rocks from the roof. With no alternative available, he dived forwards towards where the obstacle had once been, sheltering in the gap created by the bronze door's absence due to the security provided by the structurally solid door frames. When he opened his eyes, the dust had settled, but it was easy to see that he was cut off from Neville.

"Neville!" he called out. "Are you OK?"

"_Yeah, -cough-, I'm fine_…" Neville replied; his voice was fairly faint through the mass of rocks before him, but it was still audible. "_Unfortunately, my wand arm is broken; I'm not gonna be able to shift these rocks in a hurry. You go on; I'll just take a slow and steady pace back here…_"

After a brief silence, Neville spoke one last time, just as Harry was about to move on. "_Good luck, mate_."

Harry wandered on, moving aside his annoyance for Neville to replace it with sympathy for his partner; this was the first occasion the two of them hadn't done something together for as long as he could remember. It wasn't long before he reached a large chamber, lit ominously by green flame that illuminated the statues that surrounded the cavern. The statues consisted not only of several serpents, but also a man with a beard and long hair that Harry instantly concluded was none other than Salazar Slytherin.

His eyes then rested upon the form of a young girl lying on the chamber floor, her red hair fanned out like an angel. Harry immediately dropped to one knee, wand out as he quickly surveyed the area.

_Statue… height advantage if I need it. Tunnel system… cover. Fire… possible weapon. Water… potential hazard. A diary…_

He paused his analysis, looking at the diary in confusion. _What is that about; what kind of abductor steals an eleven-year-old's diary?_

He then made his way over to the unconscious girl, wand still out, to better look at the diary she was clutching; it might be his imagination, but it almost seemed to be… glowing?

"Ginny?" he said, leaning over to shake her shoulder gently. "Come on… it's time to wake up, you're safe now..."

"She won't wake," a voice said to his left. Acting on instinct- people who spoke to you in hostile situations were generally about to attack you-, Harry commando rolled away from Ginny, coming up on one knee with his wand pointing at the speaker. Even as he launched a wandless stunner, however, nothing changed; the spell simply passed straight through the speaker, a male of about sixteen years.

"I'm warning you," Harry said grimly, as he stared at his opponent while trying not to think about the implications of a spell going _through _somebody, "hand over any weapons you have, cancel whatever charms you have upon yourself and the girl, then come quietly with me; I don't _want_ to use force, but I will if I have to."

"I highly doubt you could _force_ me to do anything!" the boy replied, chuckling as he looked at the boy before him. "Now, I'm warning you; give me your weapons and I may not decide to set my pet upon you."

Harry was slightly confused as to what the threat was about, although he doubted that he would have handed his weapons over even if he did; he simply tightened his grip on his wand and waited to discover some new information while his mind raced to come up with an alternative strategy.

"So be it..." the boy said after a brief pause, evidently realising that Harry wasn't going to obey his 'order'. "_Shhsalasssa sssinsersss_."

The statue that Harry had earlier assessed as a possible height advantage started to rumble, the lowering mouth instantly cluing him in on what was happening.

_Oh crap…_he thought to himself. _The basilisk!_

Recalling something that he'd been taught by an Indian mage during his training-t he mage's speciality had been to find and teach potential magic users by literally looking at their magic to determine their potential-, he 'shifted' his vision, allowing him to see using magic rather than his conventional vision. While still aware of his surroundings, he could now see the faint glow from the ceiling that indicated the powerful magic surrounding Hogwarts, the rapidly-fading glow of Ginny Weasley's magic as whatever was happening to her continued, the strange black glow around the diary, the ever-increasing glow of the boy- it almost seemed like his glow increased as Ginny's faded-…

And then he saw it.

A green glowing serpent shape emerging from the mouth of the statue, the place where its eyes would be on its head emitting a golden glow; if it wasn't for the fact that this type of vision didn't 'see' using the normal wavelengths that allowed the basilisk's glare to petrify its victims, Harry would have been dead.

Drawing his sword, Harry took flight- ignoring the sound of shock from the older boy-, hacking rapidly at the basilisk as he flew around it. The beast seemed to be able to counter his every move, dodging his attacks at its neck at an astonishing speed for a creature of that size. Its own attempts to attack Harry was only just countered by a series of desperate manoeuvres with his sword, Harry slowly but surely losing energy with each attack, to the extent that he was forced to limit the power he devoted to flying even as he maintained the magic-based eyesight.

With a final lunge before his ability to fly gave out on him, Harry went for the beast's neck, feeling some satisfaction as the blow connected and the snake screeched in pain. Diving into the tunnels- he needed somewhere safe to rest and recuperate his energy-, Harry darted around them for a few moments before he stopped, resting on one knee.

It was only when he was resting, his power no longer being channelled into the fight, that he realised that he was feeling rather…

Stranger, was the only term he could think of; it was as though there was suddenly an extensive amount of power available to him that he just couldn't _quite _manage to access, much like a man dying of thirst in front of a dam…

He had no choice; if he was going to kill that snake, he _had _to break that dam.

_OK_… he thought to himself grimly, taking a deep breath as he reached inside himself, tapping into the old meditation techniques he'd learned during his training to better focus his magic. _Here goes nothing…_

--

Tom Riddle watched the battle between the unknown powerful boy and his pet with intense curiosity, particularly intrigued at the boy's ability to fly while apparently being unaffected by his pet's stare. Although the boy's magic was initially strong enough to generate a powerful glow around him, he rapidly lost energy while combating his pet, only just managing to escape the creature thanks to a lucky attack that gave him time to retreat into the tunnels around the main chamber.

/s/ _Stop that! /s/_ he cursed as he yelled in frustration at the snake. _/s/ You aren't hurt that badly! Now, go and find that boy, in the tunnels– go! _/s/

He only have to wait for a few moments after his beast had slithered away into the tunnels before the gargantuan serpent flew through a wall that connected to a tunnel on the other side.

It was the emergence of the second figure that scared Tom; he knew instantly that, even if he survived this confrontation- and for the first time he allowed himself to think of the possibility of defeat-, what was now before him would haunt him forever.

Harry Potter emerged from the hole in the wall, a golden glow around him where once had been a simple white one, his hair now bright blonde and his eyes the most intense green imaginable. Without even seeming to register Tom's presence, he wandlessley and wordlessly sent an exploding charm at the basilisk, hitting it in the chest, causing the creature to briefly wail in pain before Harry jumped the thirty foot gap between them, killing the beast by quickly plunging his sword into its head.

Barely even stopping to think, Harry turned his attention on the next greatest source of dark magic in the room; the diary. Silently summoning it to him, a brief glance at the cover was all he needed to confirm its owner; _T. M. Riddle. _

_Tom Marvolo Riddle_… he mused, recalling the information he'd received regarding Voldemort's past during his training.

Glancing up at the boy- who was already growing more tangible in appearance-, Harry chuckled slightly as he threw the diary onto the wet ground before him.

"Goodbye,_ Tom_," he spat, loathing clear in his voice as he plunged the now-bloody sword into the diary (Although it didn't seem to be _uniquely _blood on the blade; he could see some black stuff that looked more like the descriptions he'd read of basilisk venom).

"No!" Tom yelled, almost automatically beginning to fade as the sword made contact with the diary. "_Stop_! _WAAAaaaiiii…_"

Almost mid-sentence, the 'ghost'- or whatever it was; Harry was sure he'd read something about aspects of a person being bonded to an object, but he just couldn't remember _what _it was- faded into nothingness.

Harry barely even noticed as the glow that had surrounded him faded away, leaving only the blonde hair as a sign that it had ever been present; all he cared about right now was the still-unconscious form of Ginny Weasley that lay before him.

"Ginny?" he said, crouching down to try and shake her awake. "You can wake up now… Tom's gone… you can leave the chamber…"

After a few moments- he had no way of knowing how long; he'd lost track of time-, he finally gave up any attempts to wake her, simply bending down to pick her up, ignoring his old injuries as he walked back the way he had come. As soon as he reached the blockade of rocks where he'd left Neville, he was pleasantly surprised to see that his friend had created a Harry-sized gap during his absence; at least he wouldn't need to try and blast his way out of here (He might have had a bit of a power boost, but that didn't mean he wasn't still tired after expending all that magical energy).

"You're late!" Neville yelled as Harry walked into view, the shadows initially concealing the changes he'd just undergone from view. "I've had to move _all_ these boulders myself... and… and what's up with the weirdo hair...?"

"I'm late, you're ugly; at least I can _change_ that!" Harry chuckled. "The hair...I don't know, really; I think it's a side-effect of me just… just…"

After a moment's uncertainty as he tried to find an appropriate term for what had taken place, he shrugged. "Well, I think I tapped into the full potential of my magical core and let it all out at once in a dangerous situation; the shock to my system probably triggered a few cosmetic changes."

"Right…" Neville muttered, shaking his head slightly. "I get _that_… sounds like one of the boulders must have hit you on the head, if you ask me!"

"Oh, and whose fault is _that_?" laughed Harry, glad to move past the subject of his hair; given that he hadn't even seen it beyond a few strands that had trailed down in front of his eyes, he still wasn't entirely sure what he looked like now, but would prefer to establish that before he accepted any comments about it.

"Point taken," Neville conceded, before he looked curiously at his old friend. "So… what happened down there?"

Harry subsequently filled Neville in on the events of the confrontation in the Chamber on their way back to the main entrance, subsequently flying upwards upon arrival; Ginny, much to Harry's concern, remained unconscious throughout, but a brief examination was all Harry needed to confirm that she was merely fatigued from her experiences.

They were met at the top by many anxious looking faces and a very angry looking Violet Potter; her current foul temper was most likely due to the fact that there was a silencing charm placed upon her, which Harry was prepared to bet was the work of the two red-headed twins who were currently chuckling behind her.

Before he had any opportunity to take in his surroundings in more detail, a red-headed blur flew at the two boys, taking the young girl in Harry's arms away from him; a look at the older woman who was the source of the blur confirmed for Harry that this was almost certainly the girl's mother. She was in floods of tears, and nearly attacked the boys in thanks when Ginny woke up, slightly bemused as to why the whole school was looking at her in a girl's bathroom...

"Boys, if you would care to explain what happened, down there, it would be extremely useful," Dumbledore said over the gossiping students, many of whom were looking in awe at the bloodstained, blonde Harry.

The younger wizard didn't even bother to reply; he simply put his wand to his temple and extracted a memory, subsequently placing it into a conjured bottle that he then tossed the bottle to Dumbledore, who caught it and tucked into his pocket.

"Will that be all, sir?" asked Harry, as ever polite in speaking to a higher rank despite his increased doubts about Dumbledore's abilities.

"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed with a brief nod of his head. "Thank you, Sergeants; carry on."

And with that the boys activated the portkey they had arrived with and left, not to be seen by most present for a long time.

--

The next day the headlines in some of the newspapers read;

_**Girl saved from certain death by soldier sibling of Violet Potter- **_The Daily Prophet

_**War hope is here – Potter and Longbottom! – **_War Defence Weekly

_**Hogwarts Great Hall replaced by bathroom – **_The Quibbler

_**Harry Heart-throb! – **_Teen Witch Weekly

With the Wizarding world now aware of the existence of these two powerful teens and what they were doing, people were already beginning to look to them for hope in the war.

--

**Please Relax, Read then Review!**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four – Nobility

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

**Thanks must go to Marcus S. Lazarus for his beta work on this and the other chapters; this story wouldn't be half what it is without him.**

Chapter Four – Nobility

Harry and Neville continued to train hard, and were still great friends. Harry became the cooler of the two, keeping his calm in high-adrenaline situations, while Neville was more of an action-based fighter; when in a combat situation, he tended to act first and think later, and this on many occasions caused a rift between them. However, there were some things, like their different attitudes, that they didn't talk about; the multiple missions they'd passed since their training began proved that they worked well as a team, with the capture- or worse- of several Death Eaters caused solely by the actions of the now- Second Lieutenants.

It was approaching the duo's fourteenth birthday when they received a letter from Colonel Wilson;

_You are cordially invited to Birthday celebrations,_

_On the 31__st__ of July _

_At the Ministry of Magic ballroom_

_Dress: Smart_

_RSVP _

To say they were shocked that their parents would be celebrating their birthdays, let alone the Ministry for Magic, was an understatement.

"Now lads," Colonel Wilson said as he addressed, "you are obviously expected to go to this- and you WILL be going, even if your sister is there Harry..." he added, looking pointedly at the boy in question before he continued. "Now, you will need to look smart for this; apparently it is being hailed as the biggest party since the war began! This also means it's almost certainly going to be targeted by Voldemort and his forces, so I'm now asking you as a friend, not commanding officer, to keep your eyes open for anything, though back-up will be available if it is needed."

--

On the 31st of July, the boys were pulled off their exercises early and taken to their billets, where they were ordered to get clean and fresh, subsequently putting on their best dress uniform after their showers had been completed. In Harry's case, this consisted of his usual skinny trousers and pointed toe calf boots, with the addition of a military style jacket with many buttons and his rank sewn on the side. Neville wore similar clothes except his outfit was brown rather than Harry's black.

The boys went out to the departure gate of the compound and were sent right back to their billets after Colonel Wilson, who was accompanying them, had seen their hair. Neville did the traditional comb over to one side, while Harry- who had always been a slight fan of crazy and outlandish hairstyles- went for a style he had seen the guitarist from a muggle band use; Josh Von Grimm of the Horrors. This consisted of his hair being up and out – it was massive, and had a blonde streak in it.

Wandering back over to the departure gate, Wilson nodded in approval at Neville's hair and just shook his head at Harry's.

"Now boys, thanks to your hair, the party has already started..."

Shaking his head with a slightly amused smile on his face, the colonel then continued. "The plan is thus; I will go on ahead, be announced to the Hall, and then, around five minutes later, you two will go and then be announced to the Hall– and Harry, don't even _think_ about arguing that the only reason you will have so much attention brought upon you is because of your lateness..."

Harry looked deflated for a moment, but finally sighed and nodded. "OK sir, we'll see you there."

Colonel Wilson apparated away while the boys took a seat, waiting for the signal to leave.

"Blimey, we're late for our own birthday party!" chuckled Neville, breaking the silence that had briefly settled over the two of them.

"Tell me about it!" Harry joined in Neville's laughter. "The party is probably rubbish at the moment; I mean, us party animals aren't there…"

"Don't worry, I'm sure your sister is giving them a rousing song to pass the time" Neville added.

"Oh, _Merlin_…" Harry groaned, clasping his forehead in one hand, "she probably _is_ as well... it sounds like this thing tonight is fairly big."

"Yeah," Neville said, nodding in confirmation. "I overheard a couple of the Captains saying that every pureblood family has been invited… and loads more to boot!"

"Crikey," said Harry, secretly already wondering if he should forget about his flamboyant hairstyle. "That's nerve-racking; we're going to walk in late to a room full of..."

"GIRLS!" shouted Neville eyes wide, "Oh yes! Beautiful young girls! Well, I'm going to aim for around forty to fifty dances tonight, at least..."

"Not if I can beat you!" Harry cut in, even if he found it hard to emulate Neville's excitement; his friend had always been the 'player' of the two, while Harry was more interested in something more long-term.

"Oooh, you're _on_!" countered Neville. Fortunately for Harry, further conversation was cut off by a brief nod from the guard on duty, signalling that it was time to go.

--

The two teens apparated into the atrium of the ministry, which had been specially illuminated by thousands of faeries for the party. They followed the signs indicating the way to the ballroom and walked up to one of the low ranking guards on duty, who was in charge of announcing the guests arrival.

While he found their names on the guest list (Given that this was their _own _party, Harry had to wonder why they weren't at the top, but put it aside as just a clerical error), they craned their necks to get a good look at the hall.

Harry could only think of one word to describe the view before them; Massive. The hall was definitely ridiculously big, filled to the brim with people sitting at tables drinking, or standing talking to each other.

_There must be thousands here_, thought Harry, already wondering if this was such a good idea; it might have been his military training making him paranoid, but he had serious doubts about his ability to protect this many people if things turned ugly on them.

The guard saluted them as he saw their rank slides, then pointed his wand to his throat

"_Soronus_… Ladies and Gentlemen!" he boomed. "Second Lieutenant Neville Longbottom and Second Lieutenant Harry Potter!"

Harry nodded to Neville, who understood his nod and they both strode confidently into the hall, unreadable looks upon their faces. They strode up the aisle in the centre of the room, everyone staring silently at the two soldiers as they did so. When they finally reached the table upon a stage at the head of the ballroom they both braced up to attention and saluted everyone sitting at the head table.

Much to Harry's shock, sitting there were his parents and sister, either side of Cornelius Fudge, the incompetent minister for magic. He smiled nervously at them and attempted a sort of half hearted salute back, but only ended up looking quite camp.

"Mr Longbottom," another low-ranking guard said, as he hurried up to speak to them, "table 13 if you please, and Mr Potter, table 8, thank you sirs."

"Well," Harry said, shrugging as he glanced over at Neville, "best of luck mate; see you on the dance floor!"

Harry wandered over to the far side of the Hall until he reached table eight, where a number of people were already sitting as he took his seat.

"Hello everyone, I'm Harry Potter – nice to meet you" he said.

"We know who you are. Mr Potter!" came a squealing voice "Thank you, thank you!"

Before Harry had even fully registered what was happening- he'd let his guard down for a moment, reasoning that anyone attacking this place would give ample warning for him to get back into action-, the voice's owner had come right up to him and finally tackled him in a hug.

"Molly," said a different voice, "come now, get off the lad, he's dressed up all nicely…"

"Oh yes, yes sorry…" the speaker said, pulling back to reveal herself as a slightly short, but nevertheless pleasant-looking woman, who smiled warmly at him. "Where _are_ my manners? I'm Molly Weasley, this is my husband Arthur, and these are our children."

"This is Bill, he is a curse breaker for the army" said Molly gesturing to a redheaded man in a dragon-hide jacket.

"Hello, Harry," Bill replied, shaking the younger wizard's hand, "I've heard about you, never met you."

"This is Charlie," Molly continued, indicating another man with slight burns all over. "He works with dragons."

"A'right Harry, how's it going?" Charlie said, nodding to him.

"This is Percy, just graduated Hogwarts, he's joining the Clerks in the army" Molly continued, gesturing to a man with glasses, who saluted Harry.

"Sir!" he barked

"You really don't need to..."started Harry before Molly cut him off with her next introduction.

"These two are Fred and George, they are still at Hogwarts – sixth years," she explained.

"Wait… don't you two do stand up comedy?" asked Harry recognizing the names.

"Sir, yes sir! Stand up comedy is a pastime of ours Sir!" said George in an obvious attempt to mock Percy

Harry laughed as Molly gestured to a chubby redheaded boy about Harry's age, in some very uncomfortable looking dress-robes.

"This is Ron, he's your age."

"Hi, Harry, how are you?" said a nervous looking Ron, before he got up and moved towards the buffet; evidently, Harry noted, the younger boy felt very overshadowed by his assorted brothers.

"Oh, please excuse Ron," Molly said, looking apologetically at Harry. "He gets terribly badly bullied at school for his hair and… things… which led to him eating more, and, well..." Molly trailed off, looking sadly after her son for a moment, before Arthur spoke up.

"And I believe you have already met our youngest, my only daughter- Ginny," he explained, gesturing towards a very pretty and familiar red-headed girl.

Harry felt his stomach lurch in an unfamiliar manner before he remembered himself.

"Hi Ginny!" he smiled at her, congratulating himself for managing to sound normal as he shook her hand. "Great to see you again, especially in such… nicer conditions."

"Hello Harry…" Ginny said, blushing a shade of red that was almost as vibrant as her hair, but nevertheless clearly resolved to say what she wanted to say. "I just want to thank you so much for rescuing me from... well, you're my hero!"

As Harry sat down next to her, the two of them laughing slightly at her discomfort, he tried not to think too much about how nice it was to actually be _recognised _for something _he'd _done; most times people either acknowledged him _and _Neville as the people who'd saved the day or liked to keep the whole business secret as much as possible.

It wasn't that he _resented _sharing the spotlight with Neville- his friend always shared the rewards- but he liked being acknowledged for doing something _himself_, rather than being ignored in favour of his sister or simply regarded as part of the package that was him and Neville.

After an illuminating conversation about their lives- Harry was unsurprised to learn some of the tales Ginny had to tell him about his sister-, Ron returned to the table, sitting down in the only available seat right next to Harry.

"So, Ron," Harry asked after a moment's uncomfortable silence- whether the kid was naturally awkward with people or he was just uncomfortable around Harry himself, Harry wasn't sure and decided it wasn't worth worrying about right now-, "how's school?"

"It's… it's OK, I suppose," Ron said, looking uncomfortably around himself. "I have… well, I have _some _good friends there; I hang around with them when I'm not in class..."

"Oh really?" Harry asked, looking curiously at the other boy. "Who?"

"Well," Ron began, evidently still shy but at the same time grateful to be the subject of a conversation- Harry was guessing that, like him, Ron sometimes wished people would pay attention to him as a _person_rather than as just 'one of the group', judging by what he'd seen of Ron's brothers, "there's Ginny, of course, and Colin too, and of course Hermione who helps stick up for us all when Vi-"

Ron quickly shut his mouth when he realized what he was saying.

"Who does she stick up for you against, Ron?" Harry asked.

"Vrpr…" Ron mumbled.

"Uh… sorry, didn't catch that one; who?" Harry pressed.

After a moment's silence, Ron sighed and finally answered Harry's question.

"Violet Potter...your sister."

Harry sighed. It honestly didn't surprise him that his sister was a bully; she bullied him up until the age of eight.

"Ron," he said, reaching over to place a reassuring hand on the other boy's shoulder, "listen to me; you _don't _want to listen to her, Ginny's told me what she does; rise above it mate! You are better than her; I bet that you could probably sing in tune! I actually happen to know that my mum and dad bribed the judges on the talent competition she was on!"

Ron looked shocked at that statement- Harry wondered if he'd expected Harry to side with his sister-, and then started to laugh. He, Ginny and Harry spent the next while chatting away, telling each other jokes and basically acting like teenagers.

Even as he relaxed, however, Harry couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that something was coming…

--

Harry left the table a little while later, going up to the buffet to get some food. He wandered past Neville, currently deep in conversation with a blonde haired boy and silvery haired man at his table, but pushed it aside as he browsed over the food spread out before him…

"What the hell are you doing here?" a horribly familiar voice said from behind him.

"Ah, Violet," Harry said, turning to smile politely at his sister while inwardly restraining the urge to tell her to get lost; he was determined to be the more mature party here. "I was wondering when I would be seeing you. I was invited here. What are you doing these days then, dear sister?"

"More important things than you are!" Violet sneered. "_I_ am making hit singles for the WWN, while you're off playing army man!"

Harry smiled to himself; it might be immature, but she had really just walked into this one…

"You're making shit singles?" he said, looking at her with a mockingly incredulous smile. "I knew you couldn't sing very well but I wouldn't have thought you would be _that _critical about your own work! You surprise me Vi!"

"NO!" Violet yelled, glaring angrily at him. "That's not what I said! You're just jealous of my wonderful talent and the fact that I, Violet Potter, am the chosen one!"

"Violet," Harry countered, shaking his head as he stared almost pityingly at her, "even if you _did_ have a talent, I'm sure jealousy would be the last thing I feel… Now why don't you just scuttle back to mum and dad and tell on me like you used to?"

Just as Violet had turned on her heel and begun to stomp away, another thought occurred to Harry.

"Oh, and Violet?" he yelled after her. "If I hear that you continue to bully people, you _will_ regret it, clear?"

Violet ignored him and continued off back to the main table, but Harry hadn't really expected anything else; at least this way he'd given her fair warning.

After finishing his food and the desert had been cleared away (Harry noticed that Ron was too busy having a good time to go for desert; he wondered how long it had been since the other boy felt comfortable enough not to try and seek an escape from life in food), a set of doors appeared at the side of the ballroom, leading to the dance floor. All the guests made their way through the excessively large things and into a room with a polished oak floor for dancing. Harry was just about to turn and ask Ginny for a dance when he was assaulted by about ten girls all wanting to waltz with him.

"Save me a dance, OK, Gin?" he called over to her, prompting her to blush and nod even as she smiled at his predicament as he resignedly stood up; he might as well get this part of the night over with as soon as possible. He was then grabbed by a girl he recognized as Mandy Brocklehurst, one of Violet's friends, who swiftly manoeuvred him to the centre of the dance floor. Tuning out most of Mandy's flirting, a brief glance of his surroundings prompted him to note his father nearby, currently dancing with a woman he recognized from the auror offices from when he was younger. His mother was nearby with the woman's husband.

"Hey James, isn't that your son over there?" asked the woman, prompting James to briefly glance in Harry's direction; Harry pretended not to notice the sudden attention and simply tried to focus on his dancing.

"Yeah, that's Harry...blimey he has really sprouted up!" James replied; once again, Harry had to stop himself from making a potentially inappropriate remark about how his father could have _seen _him 'sprout up' if he'd just _visit _once in a while.

"Do you have a cake for him too, or just one big one?" laughed the woman, though James took the question seriously.

"Jeez," he said, sounding almost regretful at the comment, "I forgot it was his birthday... wait, it must be the Longbottom's boys too... Norman wasn't it? To be honest, we were advised to invite them for our image and security; we don't want anything ruining Violet's big day..."

Harry stopped listening to them; almost simultaneously, he let go of Mandy, ignoring her attempted protests, and walked off the dance floor. He stopped at the side, leant against the wall and laughed inwardly at himself. _How could I have thought that my parents would want to celebrate _my_ birthday! How stupid of me..._

His thoughts were interrupted by sound of Minister Fudge starting a speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Fudge called out- how the man managed to sound so confident now when he had proven such an ineffective leader in the war as a whole so far Harry had no idea-, "I would like to thank you all for coming to this celebration of this joyous day in our dark times. We are indeed here to celebrate the birthday of a girl who in many ways represents the voice of our nation, her beautiful singing bringing joy to so many! And now I would like to ask her up her to sing happy birthday to herself! Violet everyone!"

Violet smiled and made her way up to the stage where she took the magic-microphone from Fudge. Harry looked to Fred and George as she prepared to being, briefly wondering if he could ask them to do something to stop his sister from destroying his eardrums.

Fortunately- or unfortunately, depending on your perspective-, something else beat the Weasley twins to it.

The far wall of the ballroom exploded, showering the guests in rubble. The first screams suggested that what had made the explosion was not nice. Harry, however, was making his way full speed towards the source of the explosion. The sight he saw upon arrival confirmed his suspicions about something big happening that night; around two to three hundred Death Eaters, led by five elites, were there shooting spells into the crowd.

Yelling at everyone to get back- which, thankfully, they did; his 'command voice' could be pretty intimidating-, Harry stepped forward, flicking his wrists to slip a wand into each hand. Before the Death Eaters could realise what was happening, he then started to fire back at the Death Eaters, Neville soon joining him in the attack.

Swiftly establishing that all they were doing was buying time- the Death Eaters were slowing down, but they were still advancing- Harry immediately decided to change tactics.

"Aurors!" he yelled, turning to glare at the other people in the room. "Get to the front now! Everyone else get back into the dinner room...GO!"

Unfortunately, nobody seemed to be paying attention; everyone was apparently so terrified of the sight of Voldemort's elite that there was an almost automatic mad rampage for the door, which was getting blocked up and leaving the various guests easy picking for the attacking Death Eaters.

"Harry!" Neville yelled over. "We need to stop them; they're slaughtering them!"

"Colonel Wilson!" yelled Harry as he saw the old military man fighting through the crowd to get to them. "Tactic eighty eight! We need you to shield the crowd!"

A look of shock briefly passed over Wilson's face, before he nodded in acknowledgement of Harry's plan. He then brought out his wand and created a floor to ceiling shield that spanned the width of the room.

_Blimey_, Harry reflected- he sometimes forgot just how _good _Wilson was at this; the colonel tended to focus more on hand-to-hand in their own training sessions since it was something most wizards wouldn't expect-,_ he can't keep that up for long; we'd better get going!_

_--_

Ginny Weasley was one of the last few to reach the door. As she turned back to look at Harry and Neville taking on over 200 death eaters and five elites, she couldn't decide whether they were extraordinarily brave or extraordinarily stupid.

She then saw the older man from the head table erect a shield. Harry and Neville then nodded to each other and took flight-

_Took flight_? Ginny thought to herself in confusion; they definitely _weren't _using brooms as far as she could see._ What the…?_

The two young soldiers flew to the corner of the ceiling next to the impenetrable shield, drawing the Death Eater fire. It only took her a few seconds to realize their plan; they were going to create a wall of rubble between the guests and the death eaters by making the roof collapse.

_How noble, how brave… WAIT! _Ginny thought, the side-effects of the plan instantly hitting her.

With a wall of rubble cutting the Death Eaters off from the guests, that would leave them with only Harry and Neville to attack…

Those two young heroes were going to get themselves killed…

Or worse… captured.

--

The roof supports were weakening, but so was Wilson's shield; it was just a case of which would crumble first…

Luckily for the boys it was the roof; within a matter of seconds, it started to shake, and then large chunks came falling down.

The next part of the plan was the stupidest for the boys; they were to fly into the centre of the Death Eater army and start fighting, hoping that the unexpected assault would throw the Death Eaters off-balance enough for them to gain the upper hand.

Diving into the mass of enemy forces before them at high speed, the boys started to fight so intensely they were glowing golden again, struggling back-to-back, firing spells at rapid speeds at long-range opponents while simultaneously kicking and punching at those who got too close.

Both of them, however, knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the Death Eaters hit their target.

"Mr Longbottom, it has been a pleasure fighting by your side!" yelled Harry.

"And yours, Mr Potter," Neville replied grimly. "And yours..."

Then one of the elites hit the target, and the teen team fell.

--

_**A/N: Oh no! Cliffie, for those of you wishing to know what Harry looked like at the party, google image search 'Josh Von Grimm' or 'Joshua Third'. Also the soundtrack to that fight would be 'Parallel Worlds' by Elliot Minor.**_

_**Relax, read and review! Next Update, tomorrow!**_


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five – Morsmodre Island, Crucio Castle

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

**Thanks must go to Marcus S. Lazarus for his beta work on this and the other chapters; this story wouldn't be half what it is without him. Thanks also to you readers, especially lexikins, who cheered me up last night with a great review and put me on alert, favourites - story and author – thanks!**

**Warning: Torture scenes ahead, some are particularly graphic.**

Chapter Five – Morsmodre Island, Crucio Castle

The Newspaper headlines told the story of what happened well;

_**Longbottom and Potter sacrifice for lives of Party guests – **_The Daily Prophet

'_**Unstoppable Team' taken to two Islands, described as heroes – **_War Defence Weekly

_**Harry Heart-throb: Heartbreak! – **_Teen Witch Weekly

Even the Quibbler was serious on the story;

_**Young Army Lieutenants save thousands!**_

--

When Harry awoke, he swiftly identified two major problems; he was chained to a damp wall and his head was killing him, with his chest in a significant amount of pain. Glancing down, what he saw repulsed him; carved into his chest, facing up to him so he could read it were the words;

_Welcome to Morsmodre! _

_Well_, Harry groaned to himself,_ that's just great! Where's Neville! Shit-_

His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the cell door. Glancing up, he was unable to restrain a brief wince at the sight of the person who walked in.

The man in question was the last person he wanted to see, but at the same time was the person he had somehow been expecting; Voldemort.

"Hello Potter," he said, a mocking smirk on his face. "I trust your lodgings are...comfortable?"

Harry simply stared silently back at him, before Voldemort backhanded Harry in the face. This slap had stung more than the conventional slap, but a brief glance at Voldemort's hand clarified the reason for the difference; he was wearing rings with small blades sticking out of them on two of his fingers. The worst-case scenario was confirmed when Harry tasted his own blood.

"You, child are insubordinate," Voldemort said, glaring mockingly down at him. "However, I congratulate you for your skills in defeating some of my death eaters; I have heard that you and your comrade are two of the three people that they... _fear_."

"That, I am afraid, is why I am going to have to dispose of you; you are a threat, you and your team-mate, one which is too great. I am told that the record for survival here at my Castle of Cruciatus Curses is two weeks, set by one Rubeus Hagrid. If you do break that record well, I may just see you again after all."

With that, Voldemort walked out, leaving Harry to stare grimly at the wall before him

--

Harry did break that record. Despite the minimum of about thirty crucios cast upon him each day, he survived. The sad thing is the crucios were not the worst form of torture by far.

Walden Macnair would use his brute strength and beat Harry, using such weapons as pipes, wood, whips and all sorts of different variations on those. His personal favourite torture was to try and break every bone in Harry's body, and then heal him with a variation of skele-grow that apparently had all of the pain relieving properties removed (and, as Harry knew from experience, skele-grow even _with _the pain relievers was uncomfortable enough).

Even with all that, Harry refused to given Macnair the satisfaction of screaming.

Rabastan LeStrange would be ever so creative in his tortures. He would come in with different books, usually the standard book of spells grade one, and find a spell to use, such as levitating burning hot metals onto different parts of Harry's body. The first spell a first year would learn was being used to hurt him.

Harry still would not scream; indeed, he sometimes asked LeStrange if those spells were all that he was capable of casting.

Antonin Dolohov fancied himself some sort of potions master and so would create various potions for Harry to drink. While on the surface this wasn't so bad- after all, none of the potions could be poisons or the whole purpose of him being here would be defeated, and he sometimes managed to spit them out-, Dolohov would brew the potions in a cauldron that Harry would be forced to sit in during the preparation attempts.

Still Harry refused to scream.

Lucius Malfoy used various charms and curses on Harry that he found in his various collections of dark arts books. The most notable of these gave Harry a huge scare, the memory of it remaining with him for a long time after everything began to blur.

_Lucius pushed open the cell door, his eyes resting of the bruised, battered and scarred form of Harry Potter chained to the wall of the cell. He slapped the weak teen with one of Voldemort's special rings on his fingers. _

"_Wake up, runt! It's time for your lesson!" Lucius then proceeded to curse Harry, his final curse caused Harry to panic._

"_Occulus Detarro! Enjoy, Potter!" he said mockingly, cackling madly as he left the room. _

_As soon as Malfoy had left, Harry's vision began to black over. If he could have seen his own eyes he would have seen the whites slowly turning black. The pain of the transformation was unreal, resembling the feeling of pins being pushed into his eyes._

_Regaining his cool despite the pain, Harry recalled a magic-control technique he'd learned from a South American Healer, focusing his magic to battle the impurities and viruses in his body by directing his inner magic to his eyes and then ordering it to fight the curse._

_If anyone could have seen Harry's eyes they would have seen the normal eyes slowly returning and the dark, black patches being forced out onto his skin. The final effect left Harry looking like he was wearing eyeliner, with permanent dark lines around his eyes, although given the alternative he supposed he should just be grateful he could still see._

Through all of Lucius' little curses Harry did not scream once.

Perhaps the worst torture for Harry was Bellatrix LeStrange's torture sessions. She had come to him during his first week in Morsmodre. He still shuddered at the memory...

_Harry was in a state of half consciousness, half unconsciousness when his door creaked open. Bellatrix LeStrange walked in the room dressed in a long cloak. _

"_Hello, Harry," she purred, stroking his face gently. _

What the…?_ Harry thought, before inspiration struck him and he shuddered. _Oh no…

"_Don't be scared," Bellatrix continued. "I'm not going to hurt you… far from it, actually." She giggled ominously "Now Harry, you may think that I am an evil girl, all naughty, just because I serve Voldemort."_

_Personally, Harry had always thought of Bellatrix- based on what he'd read about her- as being psychotic rather than _naughty_, but decided to remain quiet; the last thing he wanted was for her to change her plans and maybe come up with something even _more _disturbing._

"_But no, I don't serve him because of his plans for pureblood supremacy or anything… his power… well, it sends shivers down my spine. And you Harry you have power! Power beyond what he has and… __**I like it**__!" _

_Even as she screamed the last three words, Bellatrix threw her cloak off, revealing that she was only wearing a pure black negligee underneath it. She closed the already narrow gap between her and Harry, kissing him intensely. She did things to Harry that night that no fourteen year old boy should have had done to him by a woman. _

_For the first time Harry screamed. _

The sessions of torture from all of the elites already mentioned continued, mixed in with the occasional moments where normal Death Eaters were given free reign over him. For around twenty hours a day, seven days a week, for the better part of a year, he was tortured, the next two hours being spent with him being healed and the other two being his rest period. Harry knew that he had smashed the records; the only thing he didn't know was what had happened to Neville, even though he was sure that Neville was strong enough to survive.

Harry awoke after one of Bella's torture sessions with a searing pain in his back; a definite change from her usual methods.

Also on Harry's back was the sleeping form of the woman who made him scream. Despite the fact that she had caused him the most pain, however, Harry didn't hate her, but simply pitied her; over the last few months, her obsession with power had reached a point where it had apparently stripped her of the ability to think rationally to even a slight degree.

Right now, Harry had only one plan to get out, and it would have to exploit Bella's insanity, as unpleasant a prospect as that was.

He rolled over, his scarred and bruised body aching as he did so, forcing himself not to scream in pain or gag in disgust as he softly kissed her on the lips.

"Bella," he said, trying to conceal his revulsion, "come on, wake up."

Bella yawned and stretched.

"My-Harry!" she giggled

"Yes Bella, I'm yours...what say we get out of here and elope!" Harry replied, getting to the point; hopefully she was so far gone now that she wouldn't be able to sense his lies. "I want to be with you forever, in a nice place... not here."

"Yes, Harry!" she yelled, enthused by Harry's quick suggestion. "We can be together forever! We can rule the world!"

Harry knew it seemed all very direct and to the point, but he had to escape.

"Come on then Bella!" he began. "Let's go! Oh… wait, we can't..." he said, trailing off. Bella looked shocked and confused.

"Why not?" she shouted, sounding almost like a little girl who'd just been denied a treat.

"Well…" Harry said, looking uncertainly at her, "I need to leave here with Neville… the boy I came here with, you know?"

"If we get him, will you come with me?" Bellatrix said, excitement evident in her voice

"Yes Bella, there's no reason we can't go then," Harry replied; as much as he felt slightly guilty for preying on this ill woman's hopes and dreams, her past crimes at least made it somewhat easier to deal with the guilt.

"Wait here," she said, as she got up and left the cell.

Harry waited for around half an hour before Bella got back with a cloaked and chained figure, who he assumed was Neville. She tossed him a similar cloak to Neville's and told him to put it on, kissing him as she did so. Harry smiled awkwardly as he picked up the cloak and then gasped in pain as he stood up, nearly collapsing as he did so.

He slid the cloak and chain on, every movement causing him to just about lose consciousness. Once he had the items on, Bella led them down a series of corridors Harry supported by Neville, who seemed in better condition than him.

"Nev…" Harry gasped, exhausted and weak from moving. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine, Harry…" Neville muttered, his face hidden by the hood. "Just fine…"

They didn't speak again for a while, Harry feeling unable to waste his energy as they walked. They eventually reached the ground floor of Crucio castle, breathing the open air of Morsmodre Island for the first time.

"Down here, to the boats and portkeys, not long now my love!" Bella said, leading the two boys down a path to the ocean.

They reached a concrete hut, labelled 'Portkey Departures', where a chubby Death Eater stood guard outside.

"Miss Lestrange!" he said in a sycophantic voice. "Nice to see you... might I ask as to where you're taking these two?"

"Azkaban; one of Rookwood's experiments I'm told. Now stand aside!" Bellatrix barked aggressively, her tone clearly allowing for no arguments.

"Go right ahead," the Death Eater said, indicating the hut. "You know what to do."

They entered the hut and picked up an old piece of parchment to use as their portkey.

"Harry my love, where are we going to go?" Bellatrix asked, glancing over at him.

"Can you make us a portkey to... Hogsmeade?" Harry asked after a moment's quick reflection; it was the least suspicious place he could ask for, while at the same time being near enough to Hogwarts to get help.

"Of course! _Portus," _she said waving her wand over the parchment

"Excellent," he said, nodding briefly before he turned back to her. "Bella?"

"Yes, my Harry?" she said looking deep into the eyes of the weak boy before her.

"I _am_ sorry," he said, as he raised one hand. "I really am… so sorry."

With that, he sent a silent and wandless stunner at her, prompting her to fall over unconscious, a look of shock plastered upon her face.

Neville grabbed a falling Harry, barely conscious after the energy he'd had to expend to cast the spell, before he grabbed the portkey, the two of them subsequently vanishing from the island.

--

The boys landed just beside the path leading to Hogwarts, cloaks and chains still on. Neville supported Harry along the path, neither speaking for fear that either one might collapse; how Neville had the strength to walk, let alone support his friend, Harry never thought to ask.

It was dark and raining by the time the two reached the open gates of Hogwarts (Why the gates were still open during a time of war Harry wasn't sure and didn't care enough to ask right now). It took them a further ten minutes to achieve the short walk up to the actual castle, both of them just relieved to have made it to safety.

--

Ginny Weasley ran from the thestral-drawn carriage in to the entrance hall of Hogwarts, desperate to escape the beginning rain.

Back at Hogwarts for her fourth year… it still seemed amazing that the school was still open during this war, which they'd been losing badly over the past year; ever since the incident at the party last year, Voldemort had been much more open and confident in his attacks.

One of the worst things since the party was the fact that Harry Potter, someone she had begun to consider a friend- despite only having met him twice-, had been captured. They knew he was still alive because of Voldemort's sick mind; once a week he would release pictures of what was happening to Harry. Even the first and only one she had seen made her feel ill, and she spent the rest of the day crying. Few people could bear to even look at the pictures, although she'd heard stories of the Slytherins keeping copies in the common room (_Sick bastards_, she thought grimly to herself).

Hogwarts was one of the few free places left in wizarding Britain; even the ministry building had been taken, though the ministry personnel still worked and governed the free people. As Ginny dawdled into the Great Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table, she glanced out of the window at the heavy rain that now lashed against it.

She only half paid attention to the sorting when it began, simply automatically applauding when the people around her did so.

Dumbledore was just beginning his speech when it happened; the double doors of the great hall, clanged open, revealing two cloaked figures, each with chains around their necks, their hoods up to conceal their faces.

Needless to say, the students panicked, well aware of the unpleasant connotations of black cloaks.

"STOP NOW!" shouted Dumbledore, half to the strangers, half to the students.

"Reveal yourselves!" he continued, wand levelled at the two as the student population began to quieten down.

"We would… if we could… get these… hoods down…" a weak voice croaked from the figure leaning on the other one. Dumbledore flicked his wand and the chains fell, echoing ominously around the hall.

"Now, show us who you are," Dumbledore said, feeling as though they weren't a threat.

The first of the two boys lowered his hood to reveal the familiar face of Neville Longbottom, who smirked at the gasps of all those seated in the hall.

Ginny stared at him and excitement. _If that's _Neville, she thought to herself,_ that must mean the other one is..._

The second figure lowered their hood, but what was under there was not Harry Potter- at least not the Harry Potter from a year before. This..._thing's _face was a mass of bruises and scars, with what looked like thin black lines around his eyes. He turned to look at Neville, a strange expression briefly passing across what used to be his face, before he collapsed.

--

_**Longbottom and Potter return after a YEAR on the island! – **_The Prophet

_**The heroes of the ball return! – **_War defence weekly

_**Can they save Harry's face? A nation holds its breath – **_Teen Witch Weekly

_**Italian Wipplecrorb causing rain –**_ The Quibbler.

--

Harry awoke nearly a week later, feeling stiff and as if he had just lost about twenty thousand rounds of wrestling with an army of angry Hippogriffs. Rising in his bed, he looked around at his surroundings, smiling slightly at the fact that he could still see; at least that was _something _encouraging. His surroundings consisted of the clinically clean white of the Hogwarts hospital wing.

The nurse, a woman by the name of Poppy Pomfrey strode up to him and began fussing over him.

"My goodness Mr Potter, you are quite the survivor!" she said, looking over him as he lay in the bed. "You showed signs of multiple bone breaks, fifth degree burns and poor healing methods! Your immune system shows signs of being dangerously weak, and your internal organs are all extremely damaged from what looks like a multitude of badly-brewed potions. That isn't to mention some of the scars I have had to clear up... though some not even I can help you with..."

She trailed off for a moment, clearly uncertain about going further, before she continued to speak. "Onto your eyes Mr Potter, can you see well?"

"Well enough," he replied.

"Good," she said, briefly nodding at the young boy before she shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid, due to the crude method of healing used on them, you now have a thin layer of what would appear to be eyeliner surrounding your eyes, serving as a physical manifestation of the dark magic that was used against them."

"Anything else?" Harry sighed, feeling slightly depressed; he'd always thought Goth fashion looked stupid, and now it sounded like he was stuck looking like a fan of it himself.

"Aside from the scar on your back, which I am sure you are aware of, no-"

"Hold on, scar on my back?" Harry interjected. "I don't know about any scar..."

He trailed off as he turned over in bed. As Madame Pomfrey held up a mirror, he saw what she was referring to; there, carved into his back, inside a crude love heart, was one word; _Bella._

--

After recovering from his initial shock and anger- he was told to keep resting by Madame Pomfrey and to use a muggle invention called a crutch if he had to walk-, he finally remembered Neville.

"Madame Pomfrey, how bad was Neville?" he asked her, just as she was turning to leave.

"Neville?" she answered, looking at him in surprise. "Why, he barely had a scratch upon him...he was up and about after no time...shocking, really…"

He might have still been confined to bed, but Harry was already resolved to find out what had actually happened to Neville during their imprisonment; there was no _way _that Neville could have endured that kind of treatment and come away unscratched.

One thing that did amuse him was the swarms of Hogwarts girls who, he was told gathered daily outside the Hospital wing in order to tell him to get well soon (Personally, he though it was because he had nothing on his upper body so that the scars could properly heal, leaving them a clear view of his appearance).

After a further two weeks in the Hospital Wing he was discharged and left Hogwarts before Dumbledore could interrogate him; Madame Pomfrey had always kept him at bay in the Hospital Wing. He was now heading back to the army compound.

--

Arriving back, Harry received a hero's welcome. Privates, Officers – of lower _and_ higher rank – were formed up on the parade square cheering for his return; Colonel Wilson, after saluting him, actually _hugged _him!

Neville, however, was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Harry only saw Neville again in the briefing room, with Colonel Wilson and some Majors all invited for a drink to celebrate Harry's return.

"Harry!" he said, walking up to Harry and clapping him on the back. "How are you doing? Well stupid question really, after we both spent a year in hell, eh?"

"I'm getting better, Neville," Harry replied briefly, an accusing tone in his voice as he glared at his old friend. "However, it seems that you recovered a lot quicker than I did; kind of surprising, really, after a year in _hell_."

Neville silently glared back at him.

"Is there something you'd like to say, _Potter_?" he asked, venom in his voice.

"Just commenting that the torture must have been horrible… for you to have been left _unmarked_!" Harry shot back, voice rising.

"What the hell are you on about?" Neville yelled back angrily. "So you think that I was just at Crucio castle for _fun_? That it was a holiday for me? Because it _wasn't_, Harry; things happened to me there... mentally! Things that I don't want to discuss- at least not with arrogant dicks like you!"

"Oh really?" Harry shot back, the argument growing ever more heated as both boys' auras started to flare up, objects around them beginning to shake from the raw magic released. "Because it is _so_ evident that this psychological damage is there, especially when I know firsthand that Death Eaters _much_ prefer mental torture over physical!"

"We wouldn't have even been there if you hadn't been so _fucking_ noble and determined to save a bunch of weak _cowards_ at that party!" Neville shouted back.

"It was our _job_, Neville! Who else was going to… though you might not _get_ the 'saving people thing' after your performance in the Chamber!" Harry yelled back.

Neville's response was to throw a punch at Harry, only for Harry to catch Neville's fist in his hand and throw him backwards, sending him crashing into a bookshelf.

As Neville picked himself up, he stared coldly at Harry, eyes full of hate as he stared.

"Whatever we had," he said coldly, glaring at Harry with hate in his eyes, "whatever partnership, team or friendship, is now over, _Potter_… for good."

--

**AN: If you are wondering, the only reason Harry and Neville went to Hogwarts instead of the army base is because the location of the base isn't known and the portkey going there could be tracked. Apologies for the graphic torture scenes.**

**Relax, Read, Review – Next Chapter Tomorrow!**


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.

Thanks to Marcus S. Lazarus, my beta and to you for reading; enjoy the chapter I am most proud of!

Chapter Six – Diagon Alley

The ex-team stayed true to their words and no longer worked together. Even when they were supposed to be training with each other, it was more a case of training against each other. There had been one incident that had caused the teens to be heavily reprimanded;

_Harry and Neville were on an exercise which placed them on the same team, along with many other soldiers; both being the highest rank in the squad– now full lieutenants following their escape from captivity-, they were in charge. Initially the mission went well enough, the boys managing to mostly ignore the other. The squad had been split into two fire teams – alpha, Harry's and Delta, Neville's. The early objectives on the mission had been met and now the boy's squad were surrounding the 'enemy' position._

"_OK, Potter," Neville said, speaking to Harry through a radio-like head set the army had begun to use, "I'm going in for the attack; you cover me, if you can manage it. Over"_

"_No, Longbottom," Harry countered- was Neville _trying _to screw up the plans or something?-, "the assault is __Alpha's__ job, __as we were told in the briefing__! Over!"_

"_Look Potter, I don't care, I want this mission to succeed and the only way that will happen is if I lead the attack! Over!"_

"_It's not happening Longbottom! This attack is MY job! Over and out" Harry responded back into the radio, subsequently terminating the connection as he signalled for his fire team to move in on the enemy position. Even as they apparated into the centre of the camp and started to take out enemies, however, Neville's fire team came in and did the same._

_Harry barely even stopped to think; quickly noting Neville's position, he apparated over to his old friend and grabbed him by the shirt collar, hauling him around so that the two were face-to-face._

"_What the _hell_ are you up to, Longbottom?" he yelled "If I _needed_ support I would have _asked_ for it!"_

_Neville's only response was to send a stunner at Harry, the other wizard instantly dodging the attack and sending his own right back. The fight soon escalated, while their troops were being decimated on the ground. The trouble was that they soon became so focused on the combat that, even when they had no troops left, they didn't even register it, their attention so focused on the battle that it seemed as though nobody could stop them. When the commanding officers moved in for the exercise debrief the two were still fighting intensely, though keeping the spells fairly low key. _

_Finally, Colonel Wilson arrived on the scene._

"_Lieutenant Potter! Lieutenant Longbottom!" he yelled angrily at the two of them. "Stop this at once! What on _Earth_ are you two doing? You will report to my office at 19.00hrs tonight; there will be consequences for this!"_

And consequences there were. The boys were lucky- _extremely_ lucky- not to have been demoted to a lower rank. As it was, they were banned from working with each other- not much of a punishment, they thought-, put on mess hall duty for a month, and were not allowed to take command on missions until further notice.

After that incident, they boys stayed away from each other, both of them going into solitary training. Harry took advantage of the opportunity to try and master his control of what he called his 'golden form', as well as working on regaining his pre-Mosmodre level of fitness. He didn't know what Neville was doing, but right now he didn't care; there were too many questions for him to feel even _remotely _comfortable working with the other boy right now.

Things continued like this for nearly a whole year. After about a month the punishment ended and Harry began to lead men on missions again. However, without Neville by his side, their formerly perfect streak was tarnished; they actually began to _lose _the occasional battle. Despite this, Harry ploughed on, concentrating solely on his missions, achieving the admiration of many in the higher ranks, such as the newly-promoted General Wilson (The previous General and Brigadier had been killed on a Death Eater raid). As a result of Harry's new attitude, he was given the rank of Captain.

--

Voldemort was not happy. Not only had two of his high security prisoners escaped, but the result of that was he lost his domination of the war. Potter and Longbottom, he had to admit, were excellent military leaders and could- actually, they regularly _did_- give his own elites a run for their money. They could defend any attack Voldemort sent at the free wizards and organised men under them superbly.

Recently he understood there was a rift between the two of them, significantly hampering their ability to work with each other when in action. The team that had once complimented each other so well was now at half strength, proving Voldemort's long-held belief that they were nothing without each other.

The time was perfect, he decided, to take Britain.

--

Harry was in his squadron's armoury inspecting the weapons of his platoon before their next mission, but was distracted from his currently negative analysis- some people weren't even bothering to clean their _daggers_ any more; how long before their larger weapons were ignored?- when the alarm went off.

As soon as the sound reached his ears, Harry literally dropped everything and ran for the briefing room, well aware of the alarm's meaning; code red indicated that a populated area was under attack.

As he hurried into the briefing room, he wasn't surprised to discover that it was the epitome of chaos. General Wilson and a number of others, including Major Greer– the man who used to be the lieutenant in charge of simulations and ranges– were pouring over huge maps. On the maps were tiny black dots moving about showing a plan of the battlefield.

"Captain Potter!" said Major Greer, turning to briefly nod at him in acknowledgement of his presence. "The Death Eaters have launched an attack on Diagon Alley!"

"How many do they have and how many do we have?" Harry asked, leaning on the table to better survey the map.

"Death Eaters at around four-hundred strong, no WA squads in yet, the aurors are currently keeping them at bay… barely," Greer replied, nodding in acknowledgement of Harry's anger at the lack of response. "We're going to move five squads in to support them; mine, Colonel Smith's, Lt.Colonel Burns', Captain Longbottom's and yours." He acknowledged the brief expression on Harry's face at the reference to Neville, but otherwise continued speaking as though nothing had happened.

"You and me will be apparating in at the Gringott's end; Captain Longbottom and Colonel Smith at the Leaky Cauldron end; Lt Colonel Burns will be at Knockturn Alley in case we need support. The aurors will join in the ranks as we push forward; eventually, we hope to close in the Death Eaters when the squads reach each other. Any questions?"

"No sir."

"Very well then, prepare your men – we move out in five minutes."

Harry saluted then dashed out of the briefing room, heading back towards the Section Eights armoury to rejoin his men.

"Suit up lads! We're going to get some Death Eaters!" he shouted, the response was a large cheer from the men. He briefed them as they dressed; Harry, as always, favoured his traditional outfit of skinny black jeans, calf length boots with pointed toes and a black, tight vest, simultaneously charming his hair in the typical up and out fashion. He looked pretty intimidating in the outfit along with his green eyes, accentuated by the black rings around them. Once all the men had dressed for the battle, and got their weapons (Harry went for his usual selection; two wands, two daggers, and a sword), the portkey was brought to them by a messenger from the briefing room.

"Ok, guys!" Harry said, looking resolutely around at his men. "Form up three ranks; we need to be ready to start fighting the second we arrive!"

The men nodded and cheered, took hold of the rope that was their portkey, pulled out their weapons and waited. Harry looked at the watch his grandfather had given him so long ago, lost on thoughts and recollections for a moment, before he turned around to smile at his men.

"This is crunch time," he said, nodding resolutely at them. "Let's go!"

With that, he tapped the portkey; the battle was about to begin.

--

The Weasley family sat, huddled around their new ministry issue WV (wireless, visual). This was an invention based on the muggle electronic system a _fellytision_- as Arthur called it-, capable of successfully projecting out images– live and recorded– of goings on in the Wizarding world.

Currently it was broadcasting images from the battle of Diagon Alley, where the situation currently appeared to be grim for the aurors present; even though they weren't really outnumbered the Death Eaters were just far better organised.

However, just as the cameras were showing images of Gringotts bank, two full squads of soldiers arrived, increasing the army's chances of success significantly.

"Look!" Ginny practically yelled. "There's Harry, at the front of the group on the right!"

"Blimey!" Ron said, staring in awe at the soldier who'd saved his sister's life and actually made an effort to treat him like a _person _during their first- and so far only- meeting. "He looks better than he did at Hogwarts! Bloody Hell, they are ploughing right through those scumbags like a hot knife through butter!"

"RONALD WEASLEY! Watch your mouth!" shouted an annoyed Molly Weasley.

"He's right though mum!" Ginny said, staring in awe at the screen. "Look at how fast Harry is; he's got his sword and his wand... wow, he's using them at the same time!"

"Yeah, mum!" Fred put in. "Look how gorgeous and dreamy he is with his wand..."

"Tell me about it oh-brother-mine," George added, a slightly teasing smile on his face as his eyes flicked over to look at Ginny. "What a hero..."

"You two ought to have more respect for him," a stern-sounding Bill said as he looked over at his younger brothers. "He's two years _younger_ than you and he's out there leading from the front, already a cap- BLIMEY!" he yelled, interrupting himself as he stared in awe at the screen. "Did you see that? He just lobbed a Death Eater's head clean off!"

The camera view then changed to the other end of the Alley, about one hundred metres away from the Leaky Cauldron, where two squads were pushing their way forward, closing in on the Death Eaters in the same fashion as Harry's section. Before long the death eaters were closed in, their backs to one of the shops in the wider area of the Alley, surrounded to the left and the right, with a small but clearly strong group in front of them.

_For those viewers wandering who the group directly in front of the Death Eater forces are_, the reporter's voice said from the WV,_ I am told it is the leaders of the battle; James Potter of the Aurors, Albus Dumbledore representing the Order of the Phoenix, and… yes… yes, I am hearing that the other two standing there are Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom._

_So far we have seen large casualties on each side; perhaps the most notable casualties are two army leaders, a… Simon Burns and Richard Smith. We are expecting the Death Eaters here, numbering about two-hundred to be arrested any moment now, I am sure we can be confident of… what? Who are… oh Merlin. Merlin no – It can't be…_ the reporter continued, his tone becoming more fearful as a group of about ten Death Eaters apparated in front of their remaining troops. _Ladies and Gentlemen, those individuals who have just arrived on the side of the death eaters are none other than You-Know-Who and his elites. Merlin help those poor men and women still down there…_

--

Harry was pleased with how the battle had gone so far; the Death Eaters had been forced back and were now pretty much surrounded. He went over to the small group in front of the Death Eaters to discuss further orders with the other leaders (With Major Greer having been injured in battle and evacuated, command had automatically fallen to him). However, his good mood at the battle's outcome fell when he saw who was with the group; his father, James Potter, representing the aurors, Albus Dumbledore, representing the Order of the Phoenix, and Neville, representing his flank of the army attack.

_Great_… he mused, as he walked over to join them. _I have to work with the three people on Earth I'd do anything to _not _be stuck in a room with…_

"Harry?" James said, looking over at him in surprise as he approached. "What are you doing here?"

"That's Captain Potter to you, _Lieutenant_," Harry replied, struggling to hide his amusement- he might not like the man but that didn't mean he wanted to humiliate somebody he had to work with-, "and I'm here because those men to our left are under my command."

"Ah...yes, well– you see all the men in red robes? They're Aurors under my command!" James replied, a slightly smug look on his face as he spoke; Harry wondered if it was even worth pointing out the fact that he wasn't even half James's age and yet had almost more people following him.

"Dumbledore, what's the plan?" James continued, now looking to the old man for guidance, Harry having apparently been pushed to one side as far as he was concerned.

"We shall detain these men and keep them prisoner, to await trials where they shall be charged," Dumbledore replied.

"And where shall they be kept?" Harry pointed out; the wizards had never managed to create an effective replacement for Azkaban after Voldemort took control of the island.

"And who'll charge them?" Neville added; with the Ministry divided, gathering the Wizengamont together was a nearly impossible task.

"Well, we shall cross that bridge when we come to it," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling in a manner that Harry couldn't identify but didn't much like the look of.

"We're _on_ that bridge, Dumbledore!" Harry groaned, exasperation in his voice. "With Azkaban gone we have nowhere to keep them!"

"We'll figure something out," Dumbledore began, looking at Harry as though wondering what gave the younger boy the right to speak to him that way. "Don't you worry my dea-"

Whatever the headmaster had been about to say was cut off at the sound of multiple apparitions, prompting Harry to spun around and level both his wands at the threat, Neville only a few seconds behind him.

It only took a few seconds to confirm that the worst-case-scenario had just taken place; Voldemort and his elite were here.

"Dumbledore, how nice to see you!" the Dark Lord began, smiling despite the multiple wands aimed at him. "And big Potter! How does it feel to be outranked and outpowered by your own son?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" James countered; whether he actually believed that or was just contradicting Voldemort for the sake of it, Harry wasn't sure.

"And little Potter...I still don't know why you chose to leave my Island resort! I don't know how you left either..."

For a moment Voldemort trailed off, leaving Harry uncertain what was going to happen next, before he spoke again. "And Captain Longbottom...I fancy that you would challenge me, yes?"

Neville remained silent, staring at Voldemort.

"Don't rise to it Mr. Longbottom…" Dumbledore said in a low voice. "Do not engage him…"

"No," Neville said simply, smirking and raising his wand as he took a step towards Voldemort.

"Neville, stop!" Harry yelled; Neville didn't even seem to hear him, simply continuing on as though Harry hadn't spoken. "Neville, _don't_-"

It was when Harry stepped forward to place a hand on Neville's shoulder that he knew something was seriously wrong.

"Get off me, Potter!" his old teammate shouted, shrugging Harry off with a brief punch to the face.

It was only after Harry hit the ground that he realised the punch had left a familiar pain in the left side of his face, to say nothing of the blood that was now on his arm.

"Oh no…" he whispered, looking up in shock, praying that he was wrong as Neville advanced towards Voldemort, hoping against the evidence that his old friend would at least _try _and curse the bastard…

Then Neville lowered his wand and dropped to one knee, and Harry knew that he'd been correct. Neville said one word that made Harry's heart sink;

"Master."

­--

Back at the Burrow, the Weasley family could only watch in horror as the most feared wizard alive arrived at the battle, Molly and Ginny crying in fear and pain for Harry as his best friend openly betrayed him…

Then visuals cut on the WV, leaving the entire audience wondering what was now taking place on the battlefield.

­­­--

Even with blood streaming from his cheek, the wound caused by the bladed ring that Neville must have acquired from Voldemort, Harry barely even felt the agony on his face; the sight of his life-long friend bowing before the Dark Lord more than outmatched that.

"Rise, Captain and take your place by my side!" Voldemort said, smirking slightly as he looked back at the rest of the wizards before him.

"…_Why,_ Neville?" Dumbledore asked after a moment's silence, looking in shock at the young man.

"Power," was all that Neville said in reply.

"Now Neville, your first task as my second in command…" Voldemort said, apparently unconcerned about Harry's continued immobile status, the young man stills taring in shock at his former friend even as it began to rain, thunder and lightning vaguely audible in the distance.

"Kill Captain Potter!" Voldemort ordered, prompting Neville to smile and 'power up' into his golden state, driving the surrounding aurors back even as Harry got to his feet.

He could deal with what had just taken place before him later; right now, he had an enemy to deal with, regardless of the man's identity.

"Neville," he said, his voice harsh and rough, forcing emotion back as he glared at his former ally. "Stop this. You don't have to this!"

"No Harry, I do!" Neville countered, looking at Harry with an expression that somehow managed to combine a manic grin with genuine surprise, as though he couldn't believe Harry hadn't come to the same decision as him. "Don't you see; the side of the war you're on is weak; the only thing that stopped them from being utterly wiped out was us! Come over to us, Harry! We could rule these weaklings; hell, you and I… we could rule the world!"

As Neville smiled broadly at him, Harry wondered whether it was just whatever he might have undergone at Crucio Castle that had made him snap, or if whatever drove him to this had been there for ages and he'd just never realised it.

"_Look_ at yourself, Neville!" he yelled, gesturing in frustration at his old ally as he stood beside Voldemort. "Not only are you insane, you've become everything we used to be against!"

"No, Harry, I'm not insane!" Neville replied, still grinning; Harry wasn't sure whether to be grateful or disturbed at the fact that Neville was still looking at him like _he _was the crazy one here. "I have been _enlightened_; while we were on Morsmodre, the great Lord Voldemort showed me the future! He showed me true power! He has helped me to reach my true potential, and he can help you too!"

"No, Neville," Harry replied, shaking his head grimly, "you haven't been enlightened; you've been disillusioned! I'll _never _join your side; it's _wrong_!"

It wasn't the best argument, of course, but he was still cursing himself for not realising something was wrong sooner; Neville's lack of grief at the deaths of his parents should have been evidence enough that something wasn't right.

Still… in the end, it was all he could say, because it was what he truly believed; he might not always like what Dumbledore did in the name of 'the greater good'- sending him and Neville off to train as part of some prophecy wasn't exactly the actions of a saint, as far as he could see; he might have _wanted _to leave, but wouldn't things have been different if Violet wasn't such a spoiled brat?-, but at least he didn't commit mass murder in the name of _his _goals.

Voldemort's way was _wrong_, and that was that.

"Please, Neville," he said, looking grimly back at his old friend. "Come back to us…"

After a moment's silence, Neville sighed.

"Well, Harry," he said, a dangerous gleam in his eye as he raised his arms, "if you're not with me…. you're my enemy and because of that I must destroy you..."

"You will _try_," Harry countered, forcing his own grief back as he powered up his own golden form, ready to fight back; his feelings about this whole mess would have to wait until Neville was… down.

Even as Neville launched the first spell- a blasting curse-, Harry was already moving, jumping into the air and remaining airborne, already resolved to stick to a defensive strategy; Neville might be a powerhouse, but if he could stay on the move he had a good chance of wearing him down. Even when Neville flew up to launch a more physical assault against Harry, Harry merely dodged his various punches and kicks, the closest thing to a successful punch being a blow that Harry blocked with such force as to send the two fighters flying backwards into the buildings on either side of the alley.

­--

Down on the ground, Rufus Scrimgeour and the rest of the aurors and troops watched the two teens fight in fascination, even as Scrimgeour shuddered slightly at the sight of such power in the hands of two such young wizards. As the two combatants flew back into action, away from the buildings they'd just collided with, the Longbottom boy sent a string of cutting hexes and blinding curses at the other, who brought his arm down in an arc, somehow deflecting the spells before launching what looked like a mixture of stunners and fully body binds; unlike his opponent, he seemed to be out to immobilise rather than injure.

The fight continued on at this ridiculously fast pace, rain whipping both boys' faces while simultaneously making it hard for the observers down below to see, lightning illuminating the sky every so often and thunder roaring occasionally.

Finally, as Neville sent two spells at Harry- a strong reducto and a stunner-, Harry, concentrating, seized his chance and deflected the spells, sending the stunner hurtling straight towards Neville. Although Neville simply laughed as he casually moved out of the path of the stunner, he failed to take the second spell into account, the reducto striking the shop behind Neville and causing huge chunks of rubble to fly out, one of them striking Neville in the head and sending him collapsing to the ground in a heap by Voldemort's side, his golden glow automatically fading.

_Just like in training_, Harry mused to himself as he landed beside his father, trying to maintain a lighter attitude even as he hated what he'd had to do to a man he'd once fought alongside. _He could _never _learn to think more than two steps ahead…_

"_Pathetic_, Longbottom!" Voldemort spat, looking scathingly at the crumpled form beside him before he turned back to glare at Harry. "Go on, _Captain_ Potter; kill him! Dispose of your enemy; I have no use for someone so… _weak_!"

"Do it, Harry!" James hissed from behind him. "Neville's too dangerous to be left alive!"

"Your father is right, my boy," Dumbledore concurred, looking promptingly at Harry. "You _must_ eliminate him..."

Harry heard both of their arguments.

As he looked at Neville right now, he had to agree with them.

But at the same time…

"No," he said finally, rain pouring from his soaked form, his once tall hair now flat and wet through. "No matter what he's become… no matter what he's done… I will _not _kill him..."

He swallowed, wishing that he'd said this before this whole mess had taken place, before he finally concluded his sentence. "My brother…"

"HARRY!" Dumbledore protested. "You can't… he's too powerful!"

"Tut Tut, Dumbledore…" Voldemort chuckled, his arms folded as he looked mockingly at the headmaster. "_Two_ faulty weapons you've got there, it seems to me; one has seen the truth and now belongs to me, while the other is too _weak _to do what he must! Well, if _he_ cannot kill, I will!"

Even as he heard Voldemort begin to utter the Killing Curse, Harry shut his eyes; just as he didn't want to kill Neville himself, he hardly wanted to see his former friend die even if he could do nothing to stop it…

"CAPTAIN! LOOK OUT!" somebody yelled, prompting Harry to open his eyes just in time to see a bright green light fly at him; evidently Voldemort _wasn't _going to kill Neville right now. Even as the curse struck Harry, however, something strange happened; with his golden glow still active, he almost seemed to _absorb _the curse, remaining still for a few brief seconds before a bright green light, tinged with golden highlights, burst from a small point on his forehead, heading straight for Voldemort…

Only to be intercepted at the last minute when a now-conscious Neville, apparently determined to regain favour with his master, jumped in the path of the spell, the force of the blast sending him flying back into the shop wall behind him, the building subsequently collapsing on him.

"NO!" screamed Harry as his ex-best friend- no, his _brother_- was crushed beneath the rocks and rubble of what was once a building.

He barely even registered it as Voldemort cursed, touched his blade-ring, and then apparated away; all he could do, as the rain continued to lash against him, was sink to his knees and scream into the night, unconcerned about the mass of people behind him.

Neville was dead…

Worse; Neville had betrayed him and everything they were meant to stand for.

For the first time since he'd started training, Harry didn't know what to do. So he just continued to scream.

--

**Read.Relax.Review!**


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.

Thanks to my Beta, Marcus S. Lazarus for a great job on this chapter.

Chapter Seven – Minister's Orders

After Harry and Neville's original rift, Harry had thrown himself into his training, and he returned to that pattern after the incident at Diagon Alley, working twice as hard getting twice the results. Many would describe him as somewhat of a recluse.

His missions these days were all undertaken on his own, although General Wilson couldn't complain given Harry's 100 success rate. When the war wound its way to a large Wizarding settlement in Wales, Harry was transferred to the makeshift base there to coordinate the siege-like battle.

He had no way of knowing that, while he would receive a crushing blow at this battle, it would _not _be from the enemy…

--

"Captain Potter," a low ranking sergeant said, hurrying to report to Harry as he sat in the 'war room' of the base. "We've just received word that the death eater forces have penetrated the western section of the town!"

"Send in squads nine and eleven, tell them to be prepared for close quarter combat," Harry ordered, looking over a map of the town as he planned out his manoeuvres. "If we win, send in a rebuilding squad to patch up the damage, now go – double time!"

"Sir!" the sergeant replied, nodding briefly before he sprinted out of the command tent, returning only a short while later.

"Captain Potter, sir!" he said, out of breath but still clearly determined to deliver his message. "The western wall has been secured, but we have incoming aerial attacks in the south-west corner!"

"Damn…" Harry groaned, glancing at the map before coming to a new decision. "OK, get squad two to the armoury, they'll need brooms; I'll go up with squad eight and fight as well."

"You!" he added, turning to glare at a nearby clerk. "Go and wake Major Greer, tell him it's his command shift, I'm going up to fight..."

"I beg to differ, _Captain_," a rough sounding voice suddenly said from the entrance to the tent. Glancing in the direction of the voice, Harry noted Rufus Scrimgeour standing at the door of the tent, flanked by James Potter and Sirius Black.

"What?" he groaned, looking at the three men in frustration. "What the hell are you doing here, this is a battle zone! It's dangerous!"

"Obviously, Potter," Scrimgeour sneered in reply. "Alhough, you seem to be in your element amongst all this _violence_."

"It_ is_ my job... _auror_," Harry responded, looking pointedly at the man; he might be younger, but he'd worked hard to reach his current rank and he'd at least appreciate it if people acknowledged it.

"Auror?" Scrimgeour replied, a slightly worrying smile on his face. "No, it's _minister_ to you Potter! I was voted in only an hour ago… and one of my first acts it to get _children _out of the army and into the classroom!"

"Well," Harry sighed, shrugging dismissively as he turned to head towards the tent exit, "if I see any around, I'll be sure to tell you."

"Stop right there, Harry," Sirius said, just as Harry was walking towards the other door.. "I'm sorry, kiddo, but you have to come with us..."

"Auror Black is right," Scrimgeour continued. "The army is no place for a child, and you're dangerous as it is, Potter- Merlin knows that the Diagon Alley battle was proof enough of that-, and we _need_ to keep you under control!"

Harry wasn't sure if he should think of this man as stupid or dangerous; did he really think that Harry was going to _automatically _be as dangerous as Neville just because of his training?

"And I suppose _you_ will be controlling me?" he asked, looking pointedly at the new ministery.

"No, Harry; I will be," the familiar voice of Albus Dumbledore said from off to the side, the headmaster having just walked into the tent. "You are to attend Hogwarts-"

"No," Harry interjected, glaring at the man; did he really think that he could just dump Harry in a military training facility and then drag him out whenever he wanted? "I won't be leaving this battle until it's won, I'm ordered to by someone I _respect_,or I'm in a body-bag."

"Harry…" another voice said from behind him, prompting Harry to turn around as General Wilson entered the room. "I am _so_ sorry… I tried, but..."

"But…?" Harry asked, waving a hand promptingly.

"Captain Potter," General Wilson said, sighing apologetically as he spoke. "I order you to leave this battle and to carry out the orders of those you see before you. Is that clear?"

For a moment, Harry simply stood in silence, trying to get his emotions under control- the last thing he wanted was to give Scrimgeour further evidence of the idea that he might be as dangerous as Neville-, before he finally spoke.

"Yes, sir," he said stiffly. "Let me get my things together."

He then left the command tent and went to the armoury, taking his weapons and clothes, before putting most of them in his trunk that was kept in the rest quarters. He walked back to the command tent, in his usual outfit (skinny black jeans, calf length boots with pointed toes and a black, tight vest), trunk carried on one shoulder and his sword in its scabbard slung around his other shoulder, subsequently walking over to stand beside his father, as the man in question stood alongside Dumbledore, Scrimgeour and Black.

"Sirs," he said, briefly turning to salute Major Greer and General Wilson with his free hand. "It has been an honour."

He then followed the group out of the tent, towards the portkey and apparition spot, his old team from squad eight- accompanied by the other sections- came out to cheer for him as he walked away, prompting a weak smile from him as the rest of the group quickened their pace. When they reached the portkey area, Harry was handed an old butterbeer bottle, and he disappeared from the surroundings that had been his life for the past eight years.

--

Harry, James, Sirius and Dumbledore arrived at the gates of the sickeningly familiar Potter Manor- _Home sweet home_, Harry inwardly groaned-, subsequently wandering up the drive into the entrance hall.

"Daddy!" the high pitched voice of Violet Potter yelled, as she ran down the staircase at full speed.

"Hello Princess!" James chuckled, as she reached the bottom of the stairs to stand in front of the new arrivals, giving James a brief hug before she stood back.

"Hello Professor Dumbledore!" Violet continued, her voice almost sickeningly sweet. "Nice to see you!"

"The feeling is mutual, as ever, my dear girl" Dumbledore replied, smiling back at her.

"Uncle Siri!" she continued, hugging Sirius like she had done to James, before her eyes then rested on Harry, disdain evident as she glared at him.

"What are you doing here?" she said venomously. "Been thrown out the army, have you? Or decided to join you-know-who, just like your little friend?"

_Some things don't change…_ Harry mused to himself, shaking his head at his sister's idiocy; if he _had _joined Voldemort, what would he be doing standing here casually?

"Nice to see you too, Violet," he said simply, declining to volunteer any further information.

At that moment Lily Potter walked out of a door to Harry's right.

"Harry!" she shouted, running to him and hugging him, simultaneously knocking his trunk off his shoulder and sending it falling onto James' foot, forcing him to stifle a scream while Lily continued to embrace her son.

"Oh, Harry!" Lily sobbed. "I was _so_ worried about you when I watched the battle at Diagon Alley! Not to say that I haven't been worried at other times..."

"Right, thanks…" Harry muttered uncomfortably. "Can you… eh… let me go now?"

As his mother stepped back, Harry refused to acknowledge the tears in her eyes; even if her concern for him was genuine, she'd had her chance to be a _real _mother years ago, and she'd wasted it to focus on Violet.

"Perhaps, Harry, we should explain things to you," Dumbledore began. "James, if we could perhaps move somewhere more comfortable?"

The group- including Violet, Harry was disappointed to note- made their way into the living room… the same one where, all those years ago, Harry had first learned about his future in.

In a way, he supposed that it was only appropriate, now that the future that they had originally planned for him seemed over, he was to return to this same place to learn about another future that other people had planned out for him without any thought for his own desires.

"As you may not be aware," Dumbledore began, as the group of people sat down in various chairs around the room, "Rufus Scrimgeour has been elected the new minister for magic after Cornelius's resignation. He has decided, after witnessing the fight between you and Neville," (Harry flinched at the name, while Dumbledore continued as though he hadn't seen it), "that you are too dangerous to be out on your own, under nobody's control; he worries that there is the possibility you may do the same as your old friend."

"Harry's not dangerous!" Violet laughed, a broad smirk on her face. "Hell, I bet that I could beat him in a fight-"

"Please, Princess, not while the professor is talking" Lily said, looking reassuringly at her daughter. Dumbledore nodded briefly at Lily in thanks before he continued.

"You have been assigned to me," he explained, as he looked at Harry. "The Ministry views me as one of the few who could possibly keep you under control"

"Really?" Harry said, allowing himself a slight smile as he looked at the old man. "With all due respect, _Professor_, my place is with my men on the battlefield; we're losing the war out there, and to take away one of our best leaders is… well, it's insane!"

"Come now, Harry, I highly doubt that one of the army's best is a fifteen year old boy!" James said, almost sounding like he was trying to stop himself from laughing. "Hell, even _claiming_ that is ridiculous!"

"We'll just see about that," Harry countered, glaring back at his father. "On that topic, I noticed that your aurors at the Diagon Alley battle suffered from a significant _lack _of a good leader…"

"Harry! James! Enough please!" said Dumbledore, looking pointedly at the father and son before him.

"Apologies," Harry said, turning away from his father to look back at the headmaster; he might not like the man, but he could at least try to be polite. "You were saying I've been… 'assigned' to you?"

"Yes," he nodded. "As such you will be attending Hogwarts, joining your sister going into sixth year-"

"WHAT!?" came the simultaneous shout from Harry and Violet.

"He can't go to Hogwarts!" Violet yelled, evidently clutching at straws. "He'll cramp my style... he's... he's too dangerous!"

"Look, Dumbledore," Harry said, glaring at the headmaster, "this war is on a knife-edge; it could go either way! You saw how much power Neville was packing at the battle at Diagon Alley; you think you could go up against that and win? Now, imagine that- plus a _significantly _lot more and you have Voldemort. Now what you are doing is taking away the only person who could even think about stopping him!"

"What are you saying to the headmaster, Harry?" Lily asked, looking inquiringly at her son.

"What I am _saying_," Harry continued, standing up to glare at the headmaster, "is that, by agreeing to the minister's plans, he is costing us this war! People's freedom, their lives-!"

"That is enough, Harry!" Dumbledore snapped, standing up to glare at him. "The army is still strong; the lack of _one _person is hardly an apocalyptic event!"

"Don't worry Vi, I will make sure he doesn't do anything to you," James said, comforting his daughter off to one side.

"Until the first of September, Harry," Dumbledore continued, as though James hadn't spoken, "I place you under the care of your parents; you are to carry out their orders as if they were from a field Marshall. Is this understood, _Captain_?"

"Yes… _sir_," Harry replied, his voice cold as he glared back at Dumbledore.

He might have been told to follow orders, but General Wilson never said he had to like it.

--

A few days later, as Harry made his way through Diagon Alley, he couldn't help but frown slightly as he recalled the events that had put him in this position.

If there had been any way to avoid the outrage that was about to happen to him, he would have taken it.

"_Harry!" Lily's voice yelled up at him, where Harry now resided in a small library, his original room- and the entire floor where it had been located- having been given to Violet after his departure. "Could you come down to speak to us please?" _

_Standing up, Harry took a brief glance around his new room; it was really surprisingly comfortable, with a bed and small table, along with a chair on a raised platform, accessible only by a ladder. His owl, Hedwig, was comfortably perched on a lower level after she'd followed him from the base, with some weights and a pull up bar set up beside her._

_If only he didn't have to deal with _Violet _to get it…_

_Wandering downstairs to the kitchen, Harry blinked in surprise at the sight that awaited him; his parents and Violet weren't a surprise, but the presence of a woman he didn't know left several questions. _

"_Hello, Harry!" the woman gushed, standing and leaning in to peck him on each cheek. "So nice to finally meet you!" _

"_Uh… hi, and… you _are_?" he asked, looking in confusion at the woman. _

"_So… polite!" the woman said, almost as if she was talking to herself. "I am Doreen Oswald, your family's publicist and agent to the young sensation that is your sister!"_

"_Oh, right," Harry said, restraining the urge to groan as he tried to edge away. "Well, I'm not sure what you want with me; I don't have any talents like Violet."_

_(Which was, strictly speaking, true; he doubted the kind of attention this woman arranged for Violet would be interested in his ability to kill several people in a matter of seconds.)_

"_Modest as well!" the woman continued (Harry was rapidly beginning to question her sanity). _

"_However," she continued, seemingly about to explode from excitement, "I've been doing my research, Harry, and you have a _huge_ talent; there isn't a teenage girl in Britain who wouldn't like to get you alone!"_

"_Uh… right," he said, slightly hastening his attempts to back away from Doreen. "Well, that's great and all, but that's not _really _a talent that I'm able to show off…" _

"_Or is it!" Doreen practically shouted._

"_Harry, dear," Lily began, "We _can_ show off your talent! Doreen and I have been talking, and we think it would be an excellent idea- not to mention money-spinner- for you to model and have an article done on you for Teen Witch Weekly!"_

"_No," Harry said simply. "That's not me."_

"_Well then," James smiled. "Consider it an order." _

_There were definitely times when being a soldier under orders had its disadvantages…_

"_All right," he sighed, looking pointedly at his father. "Just _one _condition."_

"_Agreed!" said James, before he even knew what the condition was._

"_All the money goes to charity," Harry said, allowing himself a slight smile at James and Violet's horror._

Harry smirked as he thought about Violet's temper tantrum; as it turned out, the original arrangement had been that the money would go straight into her already vast account.

As Harry continued up the street that held so many bad memories for him, he found himself standing in front of the shop where… _it_… had happened, forcing him to shut his eyes in an attempt to block out the memories.

Just as he was about to break down in the middle of the street, something happened to draw his mind away from the current matter.

"HARRY?" yelled a familiar voice. He was so on-edge that he had instinctively spun around and drawn his wand before he realised that he recognised the speaker's voice.

"Ginny?" he said, lowering his wand from the face of the petrified face of Ginny Weasley.

"Uh… hi," she grinned, waving uncertainly at him.

"Sorry about that," he admitted, as he put his wand back in his holster. "It's just… well, you know, the area has bad memories; you just… caught me at a bad time."

"I understand," she said, smiling reassuring back at him before she reached over to hug him briefly. "What are you doing here?"

"Oi!" a voice yelled from off to the side, just as Harry was beginning to hug Ginny back. "You get off my sis...Harry?"

"Ron?" Harry said, blinking in surprise at the sight of the now tall and muscular frame of Ron Weasley.

"Harry, man, what're you doing here?" Ron said, looking in surprise at the other wizard. "Aren't you at the siege in Wales?"

Harry's face darkened, but he allowed himself a brief pause before he told the two redheads what had happened, excluding the fact he was going to attend Hogwarts.

After a moment's stunned silence after his statement, Ron finally spoke.

"That's a joke!" he yelled incredulously. "What the hell are they doing, withdrawing our best soldier from the battle?"

"Tell me about it, Ron," Ginny said, her own expression grim before she looked inquiringly at Harry. "So, what are you doing in Diagon Alley anyway?"

After Harry had explained the situation with Teen Witch Weekly- which Ron and Ginny both found to be extremely amusing-, a thought seemed to occur to Ron.

"Say, Harry," he said, looking inquiringly at the other boy, "me and Gin are in to meet some friends of ours, but we're pretty early…"

"Mum wanted us out of the house," Ginny began to explain. "Bill's getting married to some French sl-"

"SO," said Ron, loudly, interrupting his sister as he looked curiously at Harry, "once you're finished at the magazine, do you want to join us?"

"That… that would actually be really good," Harry replied, smiling slightly at Ron; after so long focusing on the war alone, it might actually be rather… nice… to see how people his age acted when they _weren't _in the military.

"Great!" Ginny grinned. "See you about… 1.30 at Florean Fortescue's?"

"Sounds good," Harry smiled back. "See you then."

--

Harry walked into the Teen Witch Weekly offices, and up to the receptionist who seemed very flustered at meeting him.

"Mr Potter!" the flustered receptionist at Teen Witch Weekly said as Harry walked into the magazine offices. "Come right in please, take a seat, can I get you a drink-?"

"Thanks, but no," he said, shaking his head. "I'm not really thirsty right now…"

"Harry, Harry, Harry!" an extremely excited-sounding voice said from off to the side, drawing his attention away from the receptionist. Glancing in the direction that the voice had come from, Harry saw a short and very elaborately dressed man standing in the doorway, wearing a pair of pink and yellow striped trousers and a neon blue shirt with a lime green cravat, a purple beret and sunglasses on his head. "I'm your photographer and interviewer for today, Elroy Lockhart! If you'd care to follow me, I can show you the studio."

--

After a lengthy interview from Elroy- during which he had to constantly restrain the urge to either punch the man in the face or do a long-term service to mankind by castrating him-, Harry followed him down the corridor to a studio with a white background sheet.

"This, Harry," Elroy said, indicating the sheet, "is a chameleon sheet; it can change to any background I want it to. For example…"

Turning to the sheet, Elroy waved his wand briefly and the sheet changed into that of a heavily wooded forest.

"Now," Elroy continued, shivering with excitement as he indicated a nearby screen, "I understand you've brought the clothes my dear friend Doreen told you to bring, your… 'fighting clothes'?"

Turning to walk behind the screen, Harry quickly changed into his now redundant combat kit, simultaneously charming his hair into its usual style. After walking back out from behind the screen he was surprised to see most of the female workers of Teen Witch Weekly watching him from behind the camera, swiftly beginning to whisper at a speed no man could understand, the group continuing to giggle as Elroy began to speak.

"I love the outfit Harry!" he said, grinning at him. "Big and scary, and the eyeliner, with the hair... wow! Now if we could begin, I want you to adopt the pose you would if I were a Death Eater!"

After Harry had fought down the urge to laugh, he did a number of poses for the camera, varying from both wands out to drawing his sword, staring down the camera. He even powered up for a short while; if this money was going to charity, he was going to make sure that it was a decent amount.

Then Elroy dropped the bombshell; "OK Harry, if you could just take the vest off…?"

Harry blinked.

"Sorry, what?" he repeated, looking incredulously at the man before him.

"The contract you signed with Doreen stipulated that you were to do a number of topless photos," Elroy said, grinning at Harry before the smile faltered at his subject's expression. "…Didn't you know?"

"I am _not_ taking my top off," Harry said, a low, threatening tone in his voice. "There are… things… on my body that I refuse to put on show."

"Mr Potter," Elroy countered, an almst equally threatening tone in his voice, "if you do not take your top off right now, you are not honouring your contract, which- according to the Ministry- is a chargeable offence… and I'm sure _neither _of us wants the Ministry brought into this, right?"

Sighing in frustration, Harry quickly thought over his options, decided it wasn't worth the effort, and took off his vest, revealing his six-pack and nicely toned muscles while simultaneously prompting a new wave of gossip from Elroy and the women in the room.

For the first time in his life, Hary was grateful for the scars on his back; as he turned around to reveal his back to his 'audience', the chatter stopped immediately, the eyes behind him all staring in shock at the various red welts caused by MacNair, to say nothing of the scars caused by Bellatrix.

"Wh… what _are_ they?" Elroy stuttered in shock.

"The scars from the year I spent on Morsmodre Island," Harry said simply. "The larger one was a result of my contact with one of the Death Eater elite; you might know her as Bellatrix Lestrange."

The silence in the room was shocking. Eventually Elroy recovered, regaining some of his flamboyant behaviour as he continued to snap Harry.

"No, no no!" he yelled after some while. "We just aren't capturing your true intensity!"

"That would probably be because the only thing shooting me is the camera..."Harry pointed out, the '_You idiot_!' apparent in his tone if not his words.

"You're right!" Elroy said, wheeling around to address the surprisingly large number of women still in the studio, "OK, I want everyone to fire stunners at Harry on three! One...two...three!"

With that thirty or so stunning spells flew at Harry, in three main waves; the first wave Harry avoided by jumping and twisting into the air, successfully evading all of them, while the second wave was deflected by a wandless shield, the final wave being simply absorbed by his body as he 'powered up' (The people watching him seemed to particularly like that last one).

"Fabulous, Harry!" Elroy said, grinning as his camera continued to rapidly snap. "That was excellent, just what I was after!"

"Yeah, great; can I go now?" Harry asked; a quick glance at his watch had confirmed that the time for his arranged meeting with Ron and Ginny was rapidly coming up, and he'd rather not be late for his first non-military-related rendezvous since…

Actually, he couldn't remember when he'd _not _had a meeting that related to his training somehow; even this photography shoot was because of his reputation as a 'hero' rather than anything else.

"Yes, thank you so much," Elroy said, nodding briefly at Harry. "The issue with you in it should be available within the next two or three days…"

Harry had already tuned Elroy out, however; as soon as the photographer had given him his permission to depart, he'd pulled on his vest and shrugged on his high-collar leather jacket, subsequently walking out of the room as fast as he could without actually appearing impolite.

--

Harry was a pretty intimidating sight as he walked down Diagon Alley, collar turned up around his neck, hair fluttering in the wind and eyes accentuated by the lines around them.

"Harry! Over here!" Ginnny's voice yelled as he entered Florean Fortescue's. Wandering over in the direction of the voice, Harry swiftly saw her and Ron sitting with a brown haired girl and mousy haired boy.

"Harry," Ron said, indicating the brown-haired girl as Harry took a seat, "meet Hermione Granger."

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said, nodding slightly as he shook the girl's outstretched hand.

"You too," Hermione replied, smiling back at him. "Ron and Ginny have told me all about you."

"And this," Ron added, indicating the younger boy, "is Colin Creevey."

"Hey Harry!" Colin said cheerily, grasping his hand and shaking it enthusiastically.

"Hi, Colin," Harry replied, allowing himself a slight laugh; the younger boy's evident enthusiasm at meeting him was actually kind of amusing.

The five teens chatted away about things in general, often asking Harry about the war.

"Say Harry," Ginny said, looking over at him after a brief lull in the conversation, "last time we saw you must have been that party, before you… well, you know… where you saved all of us."

Much to Harry's surprise, she then leaned over the table, hugged Harry, and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you," she said simply.

"Uh… you're welcome," Harry smiled back, ignoring the butterflies from when Ginny had kissed him; it was probably just because she was the first person to actually _thank _him for saving her life.

"On that topic," he added, looking over at Ron inquiringly, "no offence, Ron, but you seem to have lost a lot of weight since then."

"Well," Ron said, an expression of mixed pride and embarrassment on his face, "to be honest, mate, after you sacrificed yourself for us, I… well, I felt a bit ashamed of myself- didn't think it was exactly right that _I _got out when _you _didn't… then I remembered what you told me- rise above it and all that, you know-, so… well, I did; started working out, ignoring your sister's jibes…"

"Good on you, Ron!" Harry smiled, reaching over to give Ron a friendly thump on the shoulder before his expression became more serious. "Seriously, though, there was no feel ashamed about me getting captured..."

"Harry..." Hermione said, looking pointedly at him. "You don't know what it was like when you were captured; people lost hope, the army lost hope, _and_ they started losing battles. Voldemort was attacking left, right and centre; not only was he suddenly a lot more confident, but there was nothing we could _do _against him to stop that notion. You were the only thing that was even _remotely _successful at holding him back before you were captured… which is actually only _part _of the reason why we can't believe the Minister kicked you out of the army!"

To say the least, Harry was surprised at Hermione's very… vocal… defence of him. He'd known that people admired him, but to the extent that he was their main hope in the war…?

"Uh… thanks, you guys…" he said, looking uncomfortably around the table at the small group (Why was it that getting that kind of respect from this small group meant so much more to him than all the awards and commendations he'd received from his superiors during his military service?). "That… that means a lot…"

He sighed slightly, staring sullenly at the table for a moment. "I just wish that Scrimgeour realized what you do…"

When the time came for them to head home, Harry walked with the group to the Leaky Cauldron where they were flooing back to the Burrow, where all of them were staying. Colin was first to depart, hugging Harry as he went.

"Uh… just out of curiosity," Harry said, turning to look at Ginny after Colin had jumped into the fire, "is he… uh, you know…?"

"Does he play for our team?" said Ron, smiling slightly at Harry's discomfort.

"RON!" shouted Ginny, slapping him on the arm before she turned back to glare pointedly at Harry. "Yes, Harry, Colin is gay – something which your sister bullies him for!"

"Well that clears things up," he muttered, before he looked apologetically at Ginny. "No offence intended on my part; I was just curious, and I can only apologize for my sister's action…"

"Don't worry about it; it's not your fault," Hermione said, briefly hugging Harry goodbye before she departed herself.

"See you later, mate!" said Ron, jumping into the fire himself.

"Bye, Harry," said Ginny quietly, looking slightly shyly at him as she walked up to the fireplace. "I know it's wrong, but… in a way… I'm glad you're out of the army."

With that, she leant over, kissed Harry on the cheek, and then, blushing madly, turned around and followed the others into the fire.

Harry smiled and touched the spot where she had kissed him. He definitely wanted to see his friends again at some point during what was going to be a long, long summer.

--

Ginny grinned to herself as she went to bed that night; not only had it been a _very _good day, but she'd also managed to convince Colin to let her have a look at his issue of Teen Witch Weekly when it came in the next week.

She had a feeling she was _definitely _going to find _that _issue interesting…

--

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	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

Chapter Eight – Summer

Teen Witch Weekly sold out in record time the next week. More than thirty reprints were needed as the week continued. Why? Harry Potter. The Front page of the magazine had a picture of him staring down the camera, eyes blazing, muscles bulging as they were crossed over his chest. The headline read _**Heartthrob Harry: Bares ALL, inside!**_The actual interview/article read like this.

_Harry Potter is an enigma to us all. He disappeared from the public eye at a young age. He resurfaced when he was twelve, heroically saving Hogwarts student Ginevra Weasley. The next time he appeared in the public eye was at his twin sister's birthday celebration where he, and team-mate Neville Longbottom, famously sacrificed themselves in order to save the lives of hundreds. There are few who know, but Harry actually spent a year, yes A YEAR being tortured on Morsemodre Island, the worse of the two islands. _

_What a hero. _

_No one knows how, and Harry refuses to tell us, how he escaped from the island, but the fact he did, gives an indication of his power and strength. _

_Only last year thousands watched on the WV as Harry turned in the light sides favour, the Battle of Diagon Alley. Then to the horror of those thousands we watched as he stood his ground against you-know-who. If the horror of this was not enough, we cried as Harry's team-mate of many years openly betrayed him and bowed before he-who-must-not-be-named. There are few who know what happened after that, only those who were there do. Harry keeps tight-lipped about it. This was our interview whit him:_

_**Elroy Lockhart:**_

_Now Harry, you disappeared at a young age, where did you go?_

_**Harry Potter:**_

_That information is classified. Suffice to say, I was trained in what I needed to know._

_**E.L:**_

_We learned that at the age of twelve you rescued Ginevra Weasley, can you tell us more?_

_**HP:**_

_She had been kidnapped. I saved her; in the process I defeated a basilisk. It was not a nice experience._

_**E.L:**_

_Was it hard to do such a heroic deed at such a young age?_

_**HP:**_

_I had been trained to carry out missions like this. It was my duty._

_**E.L:**_

_The next time people saw you was at your sister's birthday party, where you were captured. Where did you go, what happened, how did you escape?_

_**HP:**_

_I was taken to Morsmodre Island, it was worse than hottest, deepest pits of hell for a year of my life. My Escape? I would rather not talk about that_

_**At this point I can see a tear in Harry's eye; he is obviously pained by this part of his life. Later in the day, at the photo session I see some of the scars from his time there, they are truly horrific.**_

_**E.L:**_

_You were present at the Battle of Diagon Alley. What was it like when your best friend openly betrayed you?_

_**HP: With a cold, distant look in his eyes**_

_I am not talking about that._

_**E.L:**_

_Apologies, you are obviously upset. What happened after we stopped being able to see you, where is Neville now?_

_**HP:**_

_Neville is dead._

_**Harry, gets up, the interview is obviously over to him.**_

Accompanying the article, actually taking up most of the magazine, were pictures of Harry. The main feature, however was a large poster, showing a topless, powered up Harry dodging spells.

--

"This is ridiculous!" Harry groaned as he saw the magazine. "It is all just pictures of me half naked! Who would buy this?"

--

_The Burrow_

"Oh Merlin! It's here!" squealed Colin, perched next to the window in the Kitchen watching a delivery owl come closer.

"What is?" asked a half asleep Ron, who sat eating at the table.

"The Teen Witch Weekly with the pictures of Harry in!" he giggled.

"Really!" said Ginny, with a bit too much interest, "I mean...the informative articles and such..."

"Oh! Does Ginny have a crush?" laughed Hermione

"No! It's just..." she was interrupted by the owl depositing the magazine on the kitchen table, much to Colin's delight. He ripped it open, pulling out the poster and laying it flat on the table.

"Oh, Merlin – I am going to faint!" he sighed, sitting down heavily, eyes glued to the poster – he was not the only one.

"Wow..."was all Hermione could say.

"Wish I had a body like that!" said Ron.

Ginny just stared, fairly open mouthed – she liked what she saw.

The teens were interrupted by Molly Weasley coming into the room, who began to tell them to clear out due to wedding preparations but then was also enraptured by the sight on the poster.

"Go...out...out...outside, please. Yes..." came the murmur from the usually loud woman. "And...take, the pictures with you..."

--

The Weasley's weren't the only ones taken with the magazine – all over Britain women were opening their copies of the magazine to great elation at the contents. Nearly everyone was pleased; except one – James Potter.

"Harry! Get down these stairs now!" Came the angry voice. Harry groaned inwardly _there is just no pleasing some people..._

He trudged down the stairs, preparing to face the music.

"What do you call this?" Shouted James, brandishing a copy of teen witch weekly.

"A copy of teen witch weekly, specifically the one you arranged for me to be in." Was Harry's reply.

"No! I am talking about this!" he said, laying the magazine flat on the table and pointing to the interview.

"What is wrong with the interview?" asked a perplexed Harry.

"You call that an interview?" asked a sarcastic James, "You hardly said anything!"

"That is because, Lieutenant," Harry said hoping to annoy James through the use of his lower rank, "Most of what the interviewer was asking was of a private and personal nature."

"Mark my words you little toe-rag, I am going to fix this" he said, rolled up magazine in his hand_ very _threateningly.

"Fine. Now, can I go?" he sighed, as Lily wandered into the room.

"Harry dear, just to let you know that Violet has some friends coming over today, they will be staying for the rest of the summer just to warn you – so no typical teenage boy exploits!" she laughed at her own joke. "But I am sure you will all get along"

"Right, fine." Said Harry, just wanting to get back to his room. He left the kitchen, but bumped into his sister walking up the stairs.

"I assume Mum has told you the arrangements for today?" she said in her usual pompous manner.

"What, your mates coming over?" he asked

"Yes! And I expect you to stay out of our way the entire holiday, I don't want to see you or hear you – that means no talking to any of my friends!"

"Violet, from what I have heard about you and your friends, I have no interest in talking to a bunch of stuck up bullies." He said walking past her up the stairs.

He walked into his room, sat down at his desk and began to draw up battle plans to send to the soldiers in Wales.

--

Harry went down to dinner that night and was met with quite a shock. There were about four more teenage girls around the table than there should be.

"Hello" he murmured, as he sat down – apparently oblivious to the giggling going around him.

"Harry," said Lily as she sat down at the table "these are Violet's friends; Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin. Girls this is Vi's brother Harry."

There were more giggles and smatterings of 'hi's'. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Where is dad?" Violet asked Lily.

"He should be home any minute, princess." As if on cue, James walked out the fire place, with a big smile on his face. _This can't be good, _thought Harry.

"Hello Girls! Hello Lily! Hello _Harry_"

"Hello." Was Harry's reply, as if he were testing the proverbial water.

"Why Harry, I think you mean hello _sir!_" James grinned.

"No...hello, dad...lieutenant?" said Harry, almost dreading the response.

"That is actually Major now, _captain_" he said, dropping his bombshell.

"Oh well done James, honey!" Lily said, clapping her hands together in delight.

"Well done, Daddy!" said Violet, running to her father and hugging him.

"Nice one James" said the girls

"What a joke" said Harry.

"What did you say!" shouted James.

"Nothing...I didn't say anything" said Harry, looking at his father as if he was insane.

"No, you said something! This insubordination!" he yelled.

"Call me a liar, but isn't insubordination is when you do something to displease a better?" said Harry.

"Yes, exactly!" agreed James.

"Well then, since you aren't my better, it is not insubordination!" smiled Harry, tucking into his dinner.

"Minister Scrimgeour actually promoted me today!" he said rather smugly.

"When you do something to earn my respect, I might actually acknowledge you as my better, but until such time..." Harry stood up and walked to the doorway, turning round as he left,

"It's goodnight Lieutenant!". James was left seething.

"That little...this on top of his joke of an interview...well I am going to do something about it!" he said through gritted teeth. Violet agreed;

"Why can't he just be happy for you, Daddy, I don't understand it..."there were crocodile tears brimming.

"Well that settles it. No one upsets my Princess and gets away with it!"

He turned around to the fireplace he had just exited bent down, tossed some floo powder in and shouted;

"The Daily Prophet!"

--

Ginny Weasley woke up the next morning and went down stairs, where her friends were sitting pouring over the kitchen table. She rolled her eyes;

"Not still obsessed with the pictures of Harry, are we?"

"No...Gin, take a look at this" said Ron, handing her that morning's copy of the daily prophet. Ginny looked at it and gasped;

_**Harry Potter – Cold Blooded Killer?**_

_In an extraordinary revelation the daily prophet has learned the truth about what happened at the battle of Diagon Alley. Those not present saw up until the point where former WA Captain, Neville Longbottom betrayed the light and openly declared his allegiances to You-Know-Who. After that we do not know what happened. Until now._

_Our reliable source late last night divulged their account of what happened._

"_Well after Longbottom stood next to You-Know-Who, it looked like Potter just snapped. He started to attack someone who had been his best friend for his whole life- just like that. It was distressing to watch, yet the sheer power they displayed was just awesome. The speed...the spells, it was... Well after a long fight like this Longbottom appeared to slip up. Potter pounced and hit him, it looked like he may have broken Longbottom completely. He was lying on some rubble and began to plead for his life, he was full of remorse, saying he shouldn't have switched sides. Potter wasn't listening. He used the worst of the unforgivable on his friend. He looked like he enjoyed it, he even laughed. There was one other on that battle field who he reminded me of -you-know-who. I thought to myself- was Longbottom really the dark one? It was distressing to say the least."_

_So there you have it. Potter killed his team-mate. Are we shocked? To be completely honest, here at the prophet – no. This child was raised to be a ruthless killer. _

_This boy understandably should be kept away from the battlefield, away from the temptations that sadly tempted his team-mate into the dark.. We find ourselves now questioning Minister Scrimgeour, can he justify his reasoning? Putting the boy in public? This reporter, for one, is worried what sort of influence Harry may have on his sister, the young star – is she safe? Readers, it is for you to decide._

_Rita Skeeter._

"He killed him, just like that?" said Hermione

"I find that hard to believe" chipped in Colin "He was really nice at Diagon Alley – where it all actually happened as well!"

"It is complete rubbish" decided Ginny

Out of everyone there, there was only one who didn't harbour a small amount of doubt in their mind.

--

Harry read the article that morning at the breakfast table, he was livid.. Violet and her friends however backed away from him, scared, having obviously read the false claims in the article.

"Stop it! Stop it Harry...or I will use my wand!" Violet threatened.

"Violet, I would have hoped that you were intelligent enough to identify what is written in the paper as complete rubbish, but apparently not. Now where is dad?" he asked, anger filling his voice.

"In the study..."

Harry strode out of the kitchen and down the hall. On his approach to the study he wandlessly blasted the door opening.

"What the hell is this?" he yelled pointing to the newspaper, papers in the study still flying around him.

"I warned you Harry, first the interview and then insubordination! These are the consequences!" he smiled.

"These are lies and you know it!"

"And? Who will the world believe, Major James Potter, head of the aurors or his blood thirsty son?"

Harry responded by wandlessly levitating James into air and casting a silencio upon him.

"Listen here, and listen good. You have a problem with me and I don't know why, now I want to be your son, but you just aren't allowing that. As for the newspaper, I don't care, publish a retraction or something, but for you to insult my friend's memory like that saying he died begging for mercy and saying that I killed him is just wrong. Things had better change." He said dropping James and leaving the room.

--

Harry mostly kept out of the way of the rest of his family. It was Violet's friends that were the problem. Wherever he went, they seemed to be there smiling at him and giggling. They somehow always got lost in 'such a big house' every time Harry seemed to be working out in his room. They somehow found their way to outside the bathroom when Harry would come out in his towel after showering. Every night at dinner it seemed like a fight to the death for the seat beside him.

Violet, though didn't care much – she was writing a new song to be released on her birthday, entitled 'Sweet and Sixteen'. This along with the plan for a huge party the day after her birthday took up time she could have otherwise spent with her friends.

When not avoiding Parvati, Lavender, Mandy and Lisa, Harry was in communication with General Wilson and Major Greer. He would send ideas and battle-plans for the siege, which they were losing terribly. He had also found a place in the hills surrounding Potter Manor to do some real physical training.

Harry firmly believed that he could reach a level above his golden form. He was training so intensely to try and reach it that he would often lose track of time and when he did arrive home James and Sirius would be looking for him, believing that he had tried to escape back to the army.

It was a couple of days before his birthday that Harry received an letter from Ginny;

_**Dear Harry,**_

_**How are you? You coping with Violet and your dad? I saw the Teen Witch Weekly you were in, Colin loved it! (Though I'm not saying I didn't enjoy **__**parts**__**!)**_

_**I also saw the article about the battle of Diagon Alley in the Prophet – don't worry, I don't believe a word of it! **_

_**Summer at the Burrow is good, though Mum is getting pretty high maintenance over Bill's wedding. While we are on the subject of the wedding, I was wondering if you would like to come? Bill asked if you wanted to, he and the rest of my brothers think you're pretty awesome, and mum and dad both like you.**_

_**It is on the 31**__**st**__** of July at the Burrow, if you could come the night before and help set up that would be great though.**_

_**Hope to hear from you soon,**_

_**Love Ginny**_

Harry smiled at the letter, it would be great to get out the house for a bit. He went to find his mother, who he thought it would be best to ask. He found her in the living room, reading a magazine.

"Hey, Mum? One of my friends has invited me to her brother's wedding in two days, I'll just be away for one night – is that ok?"

"That's fine Harry, dear, we were all going to be away because of Violet's concert anyway. So who is this girl...is she you know...?" asked Lily, smiling suggestively.

"No...she is just a friend...you know" he said imitating Lily's suggestive tone.

"Oh...well" Lily then sensed some potential for bonding with her son. "Well, I doubt if you can turn up to this wedding in your army uniform, why not come shopping with me?" she said beaming.

"I'm not sure, Mum, after the two articles that went out, I think things could get a little bit heated" he said truthfully.

"Why don't we just get you a muggle suit then?" she said hopefully. Harry didn't have the heart to say no a second time, after all his mum did seem to genuinely love him and was making an effort.

"Sure, that would be great, when are we going to do this?" he asked

"Today! Well, if you are leaving tomorrow evening, it makes sense." She said her grin even bigger.

Half an hour later Harry and his mum flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and left to go to Muggle London.

They wandered around the shops, Lily picking up some clothes as they did so. Lily then gave Harry some advice;

"Harry, why don't you get some new shoes, all you have are about three pairs of those black pointy boots you wear?"

Harry agreed and they soon found their way into Camden Market. Harry bought another pair of boots, similar to his black ones – except purple and ankle high; Lily disapproved, Harry loved them.

They found their way to a tailor's shop and bought a suit in Harry's size. They also bought a white shirt and a red and black skinny tie. Harry was pleased with his purchases by the time he arrived home that evening. It seemed Violet wasn't.

"Mum! Where were you all day?" she said sternly when Lily and Harry arrived home. " I couldn't find my black sandals all day! I had to wear my black slip on shoes instead!"

"I went out shopping with Harry" said Lily

"What! That is so unfair, you're spoiling him, you always have! He always gets nice things!"

Harry just laughed, and decided to stick up for his mum by telling Violet a small white lie.

"Calm down Vi, we had to go shopping – it's your birthday soon, remember?" he said in a fairly patronizing tone.

"Oh! Yes, well, I suppose I can forgive you..."

--

The next evening Harry left Potter Manor with a small bag, to go to the Burrow. He skidded out of the fireplace to the sight of the entire population of the Burrow in front of him sitting at the dinner table.

"Harry!" said Ginny, welcoming him.

"Hey Gin! Hello everyone!" he said there were greetings given back to him.

"Harry, now that you are here we can start the briefing" said a very stressed looking Molly Weasley.

Harry sat down, cutting all the chat, he knew from experience you needed to listen to briefings. Molly went over the arrangements for the wedding with everyone there, and gave people tasks to do for the preparation that evening and the following morning. Harry was helping with a marquee that evening and the following morning he was with Ron on 'chair duty'.

Harry embarrassed himself at the end of the briefing by barking "No Ma'm!" to Molly's "Any questions?".

He made his way outside with Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Colin and the Twins who were all setting up the food marquee. With the help of Fred, George and Harry's magic they were finished quite quickly. They sat down by the erected marquee to rest. They chatted for a while.

"Hey...Harry" began Hermione, "You know the article in the prophet, it isn't true is it?"

"No...most of it is complete rubbish" smiled Harry.

"So Neville isn't dead?" asked Ron

"No, he is dead" sighed Harry

"But you didn't kill him, did you?" asked Colin

"I...I did kill him, yes, just not in the way the article described." said Harry looking pained. There was a silence for a while afterward while everyone mulled over their thoughts.

"So...awkward silence!" said Fred

"Yep! How has summer at home been then Harry?" asked George. Harry smiled and began to explain his problems with Violet's friends. This got everyone laughing.

"Oh..dear!" said Colin "At School they hang around with your sister, it's like a bitch gang!"

"Colin!" warned Hermione, hitting him on the arm, "You can't say that!"

"Well it's true! They go around bad mouthing people all day, what do you expect!"

"Do they bully a lot of people?" asked Harry

"Yeah," said Ron "There's us lot and Seamus and Dean, that's all the Gryffindors. Then there is Ernie, Justin, Antony, Susan and Hannah they are the 'Puffs and 'Claws. They also treat the younger kids like dirt too. Then there was old Luna – they drove her out pretty fast, she is homeschooled now..."

"It's not too bad though, we stick with each other and it's like we have our own little group." Added Hermione.

"It's going to be worse this year, now that you two" Colin gestured to Fred and George "are gone. You guys were their deterrent from going too far cos' they knew they would just get pranked."

"Well not to worry" said Harry smiling.

"It's easy for you to say" Ron chuckled.

"Yeah, why shouldn't we worry?" added Colin

"Because I will be attending Hogwarts for sixth year." He smiled

"WHAT!?" shouted Ginny, sat next to Harry.

"Yep, that was part of Scrimgeour's plan. Seems to think Dumbledore can _control_ me..."

"That is great!" said Ron, "There is no way Violet will pick on us now!"

"Don't get your hopes up, she will try, but we can stand up to her now" said Hermione.

"Well I am glad you can hang around with us at school" smiled Ginny. The conversation was cut short by Molly calling them in to go to bed, they had to be up early the next morning.

--

The Wedding proved to be extremely enjoyable, Bill and Fleur both looked brilliant. It was the after-party that Harry enjoyed the most. After a speeches from Charlie, Bill's best man and the twins (Harry particularly enjoyed that), the couple shared an opening dance.

Harry sat with Ron by the side of the dance floor, sipping butterbeers.

"...and yes, some will say finishing fourteenth out of fifteen teams is a poor season, but I always say; the canons played well that season so the season _was _a success." Ron explained.

"Right..."said Harry, not really paying attention. He was staring at the red headed beauty that was Ginny, on the dance floor with Charlie. She looked beautiful in her bridesmaid dress, a knee length scarlet dress with thin straps over the shoulder.

Harry then stood up and made his way over to the now free Ginny, Charlie looking extremely confused and worried dancing with Colin.

"Hey, Gin – fancy a dance?" he asked. Ginny blushed;

"Of course!"

The pair started to dance, things were awkward for a few seconds before Harry broke the ice;

"Colin looks like he is having fun!"

"Yeah, though Percy looks as if he would rather not be dancing with him" she giggled as they saw he had moved brother.

"You know, I still owe you a dance from _the _party." Harry said.

"You're right! Well Mr. Potter now seems like the perfect time to give me that dance...of course I would hope that since it has been what, three, four years since then? That you would pay interest in what you owe me, so I make that out to be...a lot of dances!"

"Well, we have all the time we need" he smiled. Harry and Ginny spent the rest of the time that the band were playing, dancing with each other.

--

Harry arrived back at Potter Manor to absolute chaos; the house was being prepared for Violet's sweet sixteen birthday party.

Doreen walked past him, directing a wizard levitating an ice sculpture of Violet.

"Hello Harry! Loved the article, brilli- No! No! It needs to be central upon the pedestal!" she yelled at the delivery wizard.

He wandered where Violet was in this large _mess_ when he heard.

"NO! I want to make my entrance on a throne! That is just some glorified stool!" she shrieked.

"Of course Princess," came the sound of James' voice "Harry! Do something useful, for once in your life!"

For what seemed like the thousandth time that summer Harry sighed,_ it is going to be a long, long summer._

_--_

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	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

Chapter Nine – Train Troubles and Sorting

It was around an hour before the Potters were due leave for Platform 9 & ¾ when Harry was called to James study, a risk considering the office had barely recovered from the last time he had been in there. What he saw when he went in made him assume the worst.

Rufus Scrimgeour, Albus Dumbledore and James Potter all stood waiting for him.

"Well, I'm guessing this isn't a leaving party for me...what is going on?" Dumbledore was the one to answer.

"Well Harry, there have been many issues raised over the safety of other students at my school, after the Prophet article"

"And the fact that you are prone to _volatile _behaviour" added James

"Enough James, anyway, after a few complaints from parents who know that you are going to Hogwarts..." Harry groaned, anything could be coming. Scrimgeour finished Dumbledore's sentence.

"We have decided that you will be wearing these, when you attend." He said pulling out a set of what looked like manacles chained together – handcuffs with manacles instead of the metal bands.

Harry's eyes widened with shock "No...they aren't...that is dark arts territory!"

"Yes, Captain," Scrimgeour smirked, "Magic limiters! We can control how much magic you are using."

"Yeah, you do anything we can make you little more than a squib!" sneered James.

"But...you can't – every drop of magic you take away from me puts me in pain, that is why they are outlawed! And if you aren't joking about the squib threat, that could kill me!"

"Potter, I am minister- I can do what I want!"

"Do not worry, Harry, I doubt that I will need to turn my control very high" said Dumbledore.

"My control! You mean there is more than one!" Harry yelled

"Yes, each of your teachers will have one" said Scrimgeour.

"And I have entrusted our control to Violet." Smirked James.

"What?" said Harry, disbelievingly. "You are going to let that potential little psycho control the amount of magic I can use?"

"How dare you speak about her like that! She is a hero, compared to you! Now you will put the limiters on!" Was James' angry reply.

Harry sighed "I didn't want to do this, but you will have to use force, because I am not putting those on"

"Very well, Albus, James – if you would." The three adults drew their wands, Harry reluctantly took a fighting stance.

The three adults fired stunners at Harry who wandlessly shielded himself from the red spells. He sent back three of his own, two hitting their targets, it was now him against Dumbledore.

"Harry, if you would please reconsider; your behaviour is only proving your father and the minister right. Every time you do something like this it decreases the chance of the limiters being taken off!"

"It isn't even about that! I wish to be able to defend myself and others should anything happen – I can't if Violet is playing about with my power – perhaps even my life!"

"I am sure I can convince you father not to give Violet a control"

"Professor, I will put these on, on a number of conditions"

"I shall hear them, before deciding." Dumbledore relented

"One, You turn start limiting my power when I reach Hogwarts, the train is a target."

"Very well, your second condition?"

"If there is an attack upon Hogwarts, you take them off me so I can defend the school."

"Very well – is that all?"

"One more, you allow me once a week to take them off and do some, _private _training"

"I shall agree to this condition, on the understanding that I supervise you during these sessions."

"We have a deal Professor," Harry said, holding out his wrists. The golden manacles went on his outstretched wrists with an ominous _clank_.

"Thank you, Harry – you should know that I do not approve of this method, and neither does your mother"

--

After the minister and James had been woken up and Dumbledore had convinced the minister not to press charges, the Potters and Violet's friends left for Platform 9 & ¾.

They arrived by the scarlet steam engine and Harry quickly said his goodbyes; he nodded at James and shocked his mother;

He leant over and hugged her and kissed her on her cheek,

"Bye Mum, I will miss you, but I will see you next holiday".

He then spun around and attempted to hoist his trunk on his shoulder which proved difficult because of the limiters; when switched on they would stretch to his needs and not get in his way, but to do that they needed to be feeding off his magic.

He picked up his trunk with one hand by its handle and walked onto the train. He found an empty carriage and sat down, waiting for the journey to begin. The train had just begun to move when the door opened. It was either his friends or one of the people who had been gawking at him from outside the door had plucked up the courage to come in. It was his friends;

"Hey Guys!" he smiled

"Hey Harry" was the general reply. They all sat down, Ginny next to Harry, to his pleasure.

Hermione sat down and then gasped.

"Harry! What are they doing on your wrists?" she was clearly shocked.

"What are they on your wrists?" asked Ron.

"They are magical limiters, they limit the amount of power that I have."

"They are dark objects! The ministry banned them!"shouted Hermione

"Yeah, but the ministry made me wear them..."

"How are they dark?" asked Colin

"The process of limiting the amount of magic able to exit the body is extremely painful and I suppose there would be a lot of un-used magic still in the body, it all depends on what level the limiters are set to." Hermione explained

"Well, if its Dumbledore controlling it, I suppose it won't be too bad" Colin said.

"That is the thing! All the teachers have one, that isn't the worst bit – my dad has given Princess Violet one!"

"WHAT!" was the shout from the rest of the compartment.

"How can he? Surely he realizes she will just abuse the power like she did when she was prefect" said Colin.

"Yeah, except this is more serious – this is your well being, maybe your life!" said Ginny, sounding upset.

"Don't worry Gin," Harry said putting an arm around her " Dumbledore has said he will try to convince my dad to take it away."

"Well I suppose that's ok" relented Ginny, who leant into Harry, whose arm was still around her.

"It's Snape I'm worried about!" said Ron

"Wait...Snape, as in Severus Snape? The master potioneer?" asked Harry, excitedly.

"Yeah, he is a teacher at our school, a bit of a git though" Ron said

"Wow! You learn from him – I have read his theories on the draught of..." Harry trailed off, looking out the window, an owl was trying to keep pace with the train. He leant out of the window and took the owl in his hands, it had a note on its leg. It was addressed to him. He opened the note;

_Harry,_

_There is going to be an attack on train. No support available immediately – anti apparition wards. Protect the students._

_-Wilson Operation Night-fire – moonlight failure_

Harry read the note, he knew it was genuine as it had a piece of information only he and General Wilson would know. Operation Night-fire was the name of the mission he and Neville had fought on and failed; it took place at night.

"Guys stay here. No questions!" he snapped as they began to ask what the note was all about.

Seeing as Harry was at the back of the train he felt the most efficient way to protect everyone would be to place wards on their compartments.

"_Soronus, _Everyone is to get in their Compartments now!" he yelled using his command voice, that someone had yet to disobey.

He then sprinted down the corridor of the train placing strong wards on each compartment, as the students fearfully wandered what was going on. He had just finished the last compartment when the train slowed to a halt.

Harry exited the train through the emergency exit, into pouring rain.

"Who is that?" came a rough sounding voice.

"MacNair!" shouted Harry "Leave this train now!" Suddenly a voice from behind Harry piped up;

"Please! Why can't we come to some sort of understanding! If not, I am afraid I will hurt you" came the sound of Violet Potter. There was a response of laughter from the death eaters.

Harry grew angry; what was she playing at!

"Violet! Get out of here; NOW!" There came a squeak from Violet and she went back in the train.

"Potter! Long time no see" chuckled MacNair

"I would like to say it's a pleasure..." was Harry's reply

"Well we have learned a trick or two since we last me, haven't we boys!?" he shouted, there were cheers from the rest of the death eaters. They then seemed to power up like Harry did, except they had a white, less powerful glow than Harry did when he would power up.

On the train the illumination of about fifty death eaters and one elite spread fear throughout the carriages.

_What the...how did they learn that?_ Harry's inward shock didn't show on his face or in his voice.

"That is a nice trick, MacNair, but this is your last warning – leave!"

"Or what, Potter?"

"Fine, MacNair." Harry then powered up. On the train a single golden light stood between them and the death eaters.

"Boys! Look at Potter, one of him 'gainst fifty of us! Oh and would ya' look at that limiters! Haha!"

Harry grew tired and sent a wave of stunners at the death eaters, taking out around half of them.

"Boys! Fire!" yelled MacNair in shock. The remaining death eaters sent various curses at Harry, who deflected them back to the senders. This left about five plus MacNair still standing.

"Look at that, one of me against fifty of you...no wait six" he sent out more stunners, they hit their targets. "Now it's one on one MacNair!"

The elite death-eater cursed and then attacked. Harry kept him at bay easily, though it was more of a fight than he had had in a long time. MacNair got a few big hits on Harry, Harry though got more.

Finally Harry punched him with a blasting hex mixed in, MacNair flew backwards into the trees. He rounded up the unconscious dark forces and tied them up. Reinforcements soon arrived; Dumbledore was there.

"Harry, get back on the train. It seems you were correct in having the foresight to convince me not to switch on your limiters. Thank you. "

--

The train soon got going again. Harry wandered down the corridor again, slower than the last time. Occasionally a student would pass him and thank him, or lean out their compartment and invite him in, to which he would politely decline.

He was not trying to kid himself, the fight had taken it out of him _and _MacNair did get a few big hits on him, which now were hurting. He finally arrived back at the compartment his friends were in. He walked in and fell onto the seat, sighing as he did so.

"Harry! Are you ok?" shouted Ginny as she hugged him.

"Yeah, it's just these limiters made the fight a little less easy" he said

"What happened?" asked Ron; Harry explained, much to his excitement. When he got to the part with Violet threatening the death eaters they all began laughing.

"How were they glowing Harry? I didn't realize they could do it too." Said Hermione after the laughter had died down.

"Yeah...that worries me" he said _The only other person I have seen do that is Neville...he must have taught Voldemort on Morsmodre. I can only hope that was the only secret he told him..._

The train was slowing to a halt, this time at Hogsmeade station. Harry pulled on a set of robes from his trunk and disembarked the train with his friends, getting into a carriage with them.

They arrived at the great set of double doors into the castle and went in; a small man who introduced himself as Professor Flitwick asked Harry to wait outside the hall for the first years who also needed sorting to arrive.

It was not long before a stern looking woman arrived with a group of first years behind her.

"Mr Potter, I presume?" she stated, rather than asking.

"Professor McGonagall." Harry nodded.

"Now," she said, speaking to all the first years, "In a few moments time, you shall be assigned a house-group. You will eat, sleep and learn with your housemates – they will be like your family for the next seven years. We have four houses; Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor. Follow me for the sorting"

She wheeled around on her heel and entered the Hall. _Better than when I last came her_e, Harry thought to himself.

He entered the full hall after all the first years. There were many gasps from the few students who hadn't seen him on the train, but – to Harry's disdain –there were many whispers and giggles from the female population.

He concentrated on the hat who had begun to sing;

_Dark times lie ahead,_

_A warning before I have said._

_Listen in and give support_

_Fight against the one Voldemort._

_The team divided by the dark,_

_The dark lord has given his mark._

_There are few here, _

_Who can rise above the fear._

_If ambition is your kin, _

_Fight for Slytherin._

_If loyalty your stuff, _

_Fight with Hufflepuff._

_If desire for knowledge be raw,_

_Fight for Ravenclaw._

_If courage you are for,_

_Fight for Gryffindor._

_Do not let these ties bind, _

_House rivalries are in your mind!_

_If it is success that you really seek,_

_Fight for tomorrow when things are bleak._

There was a few moments of silence before Harry started to applaud, followed by Dumbledore then the rest of those in the Hall.

"Brown, Michelle" called McGonagall.

"Ravenclaw!" replied the hat. Things went on like this for about fifteen minutes, some students taking longer to be sorted than others. When "Young, Christine" was sorted into Hufflepuff, Dumbledore stood.

"Students! In our midst we have a new student, who will be joining sixth year. You probably will have heard of him, and I do ask that none of you pry into his private life and..._experiences_. Under the orders of the ministry he will be wearing magical limiters, and _no _student is to be foolish around these. Please welcome _Captain _Harry Potter!"

Harry walked onto the stage, smiled at the students who were applauding him, sat down and put on the sorting hat.

"_Why are you here?" _came a voice in Harry's head.

_Orders_ replied Harry, mentally.

"_You should not be here, however..."_

"_Hufflepuff could be good for you, there is loyalty! So much of it..."_

"_Ravenclaw, though I can see you know too much to go to that house."_

"_Slytherin, no you do not want to prove yourself to anyone, you want others to prove themselves – how noble!"_

"_And nobility and the amount of bravery you have sets you up for...yes-_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The red and gold table erupted in applause, though there was one who didn't seem pleased.

"No! He is going to cramp my style! He is going to distract me in classes too!" Violet Potter whined.

Harry went and took his place at the table, sitting next to Ron and across from Ginny.

"Well done Harry!" she squealed

"Yeah, nice one mate!" ginned Ron, patting his friend on the back.

"Thanks guys" Harry then dug in to the food that was laid out in front of them.

When his plate cleared in order for dessert, there was a rolled up piece of parchment upon the empty plate.

_Harry,_

_Approximately one minute after the desert platter appears I will be switching the limiters on._

_-Professor Dumbledore._

Harry sighed, the desserts had been out for about fifty seconds.

Ron glanced at the note;

"Oh...man I'm sorry" he said

The limiters then kicked in. It was like hot needles were pressing into his skin. Then the magic flow in Harry's body was slowed. It felt like a molten hot metal rod was pushing its way around his body, electrocuting him as it did so.

Harry gritted his teeth in pain, his eyes began to twitch. Ron explained to the others what was going on.

Harry smiled "Don't worry guys, after a year on Morsmodre, this is nothing!" He put the dulling pain to the back of his mind.

As the desserts cleared away, Dumbledore stood up.

"Now that our bellies are full and our eyelids heavy I only have a few announcements to make. The forbidden forest, as ever lives up to its title and is forbidden to students. Quidditch tryouts will be organised by team captains. Finally, it is my pleasure to introduce a new member of staff to you all. Please give a traditional Hogwarts welcome to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Kate Bailey."

An attractive young woman stood up and waved at the students while they clapped. She looked to be in her early twenties and long brown hair. She had the same effect on most of the boys as Harry had on the girls; in fact the only two boys in the hall who wasn't ogling her were Harry and Colin.

"Now, it is time to rest, in preparation for the learning that awaits you tomorrow!"

Harry made his way through the castle with his group of friends; on his way he was introduced to two boys in his dorm, Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas – both were nice guys and they seemed hilarious. _They could give Fred and George a run for their money!_ He thought.

They arrived at a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress, Hermione gave the password (Golden Snitch).

Harry bade goodnight to his female friends- he wanted to escape the predatory stares, whispers and giggles of the other females in the common room- and went with Ron up to the sixth year dorms.

He was just settling down for the night when an owl landed on his bed post dropping him a letter. He opened it and saw for the second time that day communication from the army.

_Harry,_

_We have lost the siege, full scale retreat. There was something...someone there...well it won them the battle. It is with huge sadness that I have to tell you that we lost General Wilson. Whatever it was killed him._

_Keep fighting the good fight, and well done on the train today,_

_Major Greer._

Harry felt completely empty. His father figure from his childhood had died, murdered by some new dark force. Harry for one of the few times in his life felt useless, cooped up in a school, to be taught nothing he didn't already know, not knowing if he would able to perform the spells, if he had enough power to do so, with the damn limiters.

His men were dying, while he was sat on a cushy bed, he couldn't do a thing.

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	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

Chapter Ten – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Harry awoke early the next morning in time for his daily work out. He quickly put on his usual attire, black vest, black skinny jeans and boots and left the common room, walking down to the grounds.

He did a quick warm up, then set off at a sprint around the lake. He continued with for around ten laps- the equivalent of about ten miles. He then set about doing press ups. Harry had decided not to attempt to use any magic; with the limiters on he wanted to do attempt that in a controlled environment should anything go wrong. After about two and a half hours of exercise he made his way back into the common room.

He walked in just as some of the early birds were leaving for breakfast, the 'late-birds' were getting up and those in between were sitting in the common room. Harry looked quite a sight, in his work-out clothes and covered in sweat. As per usual the stares from the girls made Harry feel slightly uneasy, so he went for a quick shower before changing into his school uniform.

When he arrived at breakfast he saw Seamus and Dean so went to sit by them. Harry's other friends soon joined them, just in time for the timetables to be given out.

"Mr Potter, here is your timetable. I trust that your friends will be able to give you the directions to the classrooms. The _correct _directions" Professor McGonagall said, staring at Seamus and Dean.

"I trust them to do that, Professor, they will probably be in most of my classes anyway." He responded. He looked down at his timetable;

_**Monday**_

_Period One –Herbology_

_Period Two – Charms_

_Break_

_Period Three and Four – Double Potions_

_Lunch_

_Period Six- Free_

_**Tuesday**_

_Period One – Free_

_Period Two – Transfiguration_

_Break_

_Period Three and Four – Double DADA_

_Lunch_

_Period Six – Charms_

__

_**Wednesday**_

_Period One – Charms_

_Period Two – Herbology_

_Break_

_Period Three and Four – Double Transfiguration_

_Lunch_

_Period Six – DADA_

_**Thursday **_

_Period One – Potions _

_Period Two – Free_

_Break _

_Period Three and Four – Study Period._

_Lunch_

_Period Six – Herbology_

_**Friday**_

_Period One _

_Period Two – Power Control, Dumbledore (Double)_

_Break_

_Period Three and Four – Free_

_Lunch_

_Period Six- Classes finish after Lunch._

"That's not too bad, Friday will be good" said Ron looking at Harry's timetable.

"What is Power Control with Dumbledore?" asked Dean, echoing Ron and Seamus.

Harry explained that the limiters could do him some damage if the power became too built up and so he had to release some power once in a while.

Harry bade goodbye to Ginny and Colin and walked towards Herbology with Hermione, Ron, Seamus and Dean.

The class did not go well. They were dealing with healing bulbs; they were bulbs with a small hole at the top you had to stick your hands in. One person had to hold it open while the other took the seeds from inside, carefully because if they burst they made quite a mess and a nasty smell. The seeds could be used in many potions for healing injuries such as burns and cuts. Harry was paired up with Lavender.

When they stuck their hands in to the bulb she would constantly squeal from the texture inside the bulb and push herself up close to Harry feigning fright. In the end Harry just got Seamus who had finished his to do it with him.

Ron wasn't faring much better- he was working with Violet. She positively refused to touch the plant. This meant Ron attempted the process by himself, this lead to his hands getting stuck in 

the bulb. He panicked and started to swing his arms around in an attempt to get the bulb off. The bulb did come off, showering Violet in the seeds, which burst.

The temper tantrum that ensued was unlike one Harry could ever remember. There was screaming and tears, but nobody wanted to comfort her due to the smell and the sticky substance she was coated in. Eventually Professor Sprout called order;

"RIGHT! Miss Potter, twenty points from Gryffindor for not actually doing what I instructed you to, Mr Weasley ten points from Gryffindor for attempting to cultivate the seeds single handed. Miss Potter calm down..." she waved her wand and the stickiness was gone "The smell will linger for a few hours, but there is nothing I can do about that. Class dismissed"

Charms went well enough, Harry didn't have to use any magic – it was a theory based lesson. During the break afterwards Harry, Hermione and Dean made their way down to the potions laboratories. Ron and Seamus went to Divination. At the door to the labs they were joined by two fairly attractive girls who Hermione introduced as Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot.

Harry was just chatting to them when he heard a voice from behind him;

"Hey Potter, I thought it was only the girls who wore make-up and jewellery" came the voice in an obvious jibe at his eye damage and limiters. Harry looked up to the owner of the voice. Harry went into military captain mode when he saw the owner of the voice. It was a Malfoy.

"That make up, is actually a battle scar, something I doubt you will ever have. And this jewellery? It is from the ministry to make sure that I don't decide to blast students, such as yourself, to smithereens."

"I realized that, I was being sarcastic!" sneered Draco.

"The lowest form of wit..."Harry sighed. "You're a Malfoy aren't you? You know Lucius then?"

"He is my father and head of the Malfoy family." Draco said pompously.

"Well its him I have to thank for this make up as you so hilariously put it...so next time you speak to him, tell him to practice his spells a bit more, this one was supposed to blind me! Tell him that I have been practicing my spells and that when I am finished him he will be proof of that!"

"How dare you my, fath-" Draco's response was interrupted by Professor Snape walking into the corridor and opening the door, beckoning them to follow.

Harry took a seat next to Dean. Snape then began to speak, but stopped when he saw Harry.

"Ah, the model...have you decided an education would be a good idea, instead of prancing about in front of a camera, shirtless."

"Sir. The article was not my choice, however to learn more from an esteemed potions master would be beneficial" Harry responded as if speaking to a high ranking officer.

"Learn more? What makes you think you know even the basics! Tell me, what is the key stage on the draught of living death?"

"Well, it is widely regarded amongst most circles as being the later stages of stirring in order to get it to it's clear colour. However I agree with your publishings on the subject; the stirrings after adding the sopophorous beans is the most important as it allows the chemical reaction between the beans and the earlier ingredients. I have actually noticed that a clockwise stir after every seventh anti-clockwise stir increases the reaction, making for a more powerful potion." Harry answered.

What happened next shocked nearly all the students; Snape smiled.

"Very good, Mr Potter – although, now in my later experimentations with the potion I have discovered that if you crush the beans, there is more juice for the potion to react with."

"Ah...Clever, that would make the reaction with the wormwood and asphodel more powerful, and it would probably act as a catalyst in the valerian roots stage of the potion."

"I hadn't thought about that Mr Potter, you are right – good looks obviously aren't your only blessing".

The rest of the class went well, with the draught actually being brewed. The techniques Harry and Snape had talked about were used and did work; because of this Snape actually seemed in a good mood, only ten points were taken from Gryffindor that lesson (Dean had deserved it as well- he had thrown some sopophorous beans at Hermione).

After the class ended it was time for lunch. Ron and Ginny couldn't quite believe their ears when they heard about Snape's new attitude in the class.

"Brilliant! The year I finally drop potions, he changes!" grumbled Ron into his lunch.

"I hope he keeps it up! I have him this afternoon" Ginny said.

"Well, that is us for the day" grinned Ron, obviously teasing his sister.

"Shut up, Ron!" Colin said hitting him on the arm, "We have Snape now!"Ron grinned.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Hannah and Susan all left, having arranged to meet up with the other two. On their way Harry met some other sixth years; Antony, Justin and Ernie. They all made their way to an unused classroom, where Hermione and Ernie set about transfiguring the desks and chairs into sofas.

"Why don't you guys go your common rooms?" asked Harry.

"Well, Violet and her friends are there." Said Justin, "Violet, Lavender and Parvati in Gryffindor, Mandy in Ravenclaw and Lisa in Hufflepuff."

"Oh..right" responded Harry, disapproving. The group began to chat, then Seamus asked a killer question;

"What was that owl about you got last night, Harry?"

Harry sighed. "It was one of my commanding officers from the army...you know that place in Wales under siege?"

The group nodded and responded in the affirmative.

"We, we lost it yesterday...there isn't a lot of Wizarding settlements left under the light's control. All the Welsh places have been taken, a couple of the English Minisry Building included – Diagon Alley and Godric's Hollow are still under our control, Northern Ireland was taken long ago, though I was there for a few battles and the Irish put up a hell of a fight!"

Seamus smiled at this.

"Scotland, there is only two – Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, they are still under our control." He finished.

"Oh...man, but we can keep them at bay – right?" asked Anthony

"I'm not going to lie...I don't know how much longer we can do. I mean General in charge of the army, General Wilson died yesterday" Harry struggled to contain his sadness.

"He had a lot to do with keeping the dark at bay, but without him. I reckon they will go for Godric's Hollow next, then StMungos, though they have already evacuated, Diagon Alley after that. Then..." he trailed off , the others knew he meant Hogsmeade then Hogwarts.

"But, I know the guy who is going to take charge of the army know, Greer, he won't let that happen without a fight!" he smiled, although inside he felt unsure especially this new threat having appeared, killing Wilson.

The slightly morbid atmosphere was interrupted by the arrival of Colin and Ginny. Ginny fell back onto the sofa, sitting next to Harry.

"Well? How was Snape?" asked Ernie

"He seemed to be making an effort..." said Ginny

"Really?" asked Ron, shocked.

"NO!" shouted Colin. "He was an absolute git! Same old stuff shirt-lifters can't brew potions this...incompetent Weasley that! He infuriates me!"

"And he is right- Weasels are incompetent idiots! And as for you Creevey, of course little girls like you can't brew potions!" Violet Potter stood at the door, cronies stood behind her.

"Leave us alone, Potte- erm Violet" sighed Hermione.

"Get lost, Granger, stupid bookworm!" spat Lavender from behind Violet.

Harry stood up- he was angry.

"Violet. Get out now. Or I swear I will curse you so that you're toenails grow through every pair of shoes you own, so that you have facial hair so long you will make Dumbledore look clean shaven and so ugly that you will make every mirror in Britain shatter. I would curse your singing voice, but I don't think even I could make it worse!" he spat.

Instead of having a traditional temper tantrum, Violet just smirked. This made everyone in the room, _slightly _worried.

"Well I might just stay then, because I was under the impression that you can't do magic!"

"If you place a rock in a river it won't stop much river. Build a damn it will. These" he said gesturing to the limiters, "is a rock in the river that is my magic!"

Violet's reply was actually fairly intelligent, for her at least; "Well, then let's build a damn!"

She reached into her robes and pulled out a small golden object with a dial upon it.

"Violet NO!" Harry shouted but was too late, she had twisted the dial.

The dull pain in Harry's body was amplified, it was worse than any cruciatus curse he had ever felt. It perhaps was only beaten by a few of the tortures he had experienced on Morsmodre.

Harry sunk to his knees, he didn't scream. If the death eaters didn't there was no hope in hell Violet would. He began to write around on the floor, coughing.

"Violet!" he gasped "Stop!" He began to cough even more, blood was coming up.

Everyone else was panicking, they would have sent spells at Violet, but didn't want to risk hitting the control. It was Ginny, who was in tears at Harry's situation who finally did something.

Violet was cackling at Harry on the ground, "Beg me Harry! Scream!"

Ginny ran over and punched Violet in the face. She took the control and turned it back down to where it had been. She then turned around, knelt and took care of Harry.

"Harry! Are you going to be ok?" she gushed, still crying.

Harry smiled weakly, "I'll survive...I just need a good sleep and I will be as right as rain!"

"I don't think so! You are going straight to the Hospital Wing!"

They made their way down, with Harry recovering as he went, after all he had been trained in quick self recovery in the army, and Violet with a black eye. It was only a black eye but from the fuss she was making, it sounded like the end of the world.

When the group arrived and the story was told Madame Pomfrey was outraged.

"Mr Goldstein, go and get Professor Dumbledore, Mr Finnegan fetch Professor McGonagall!" she said.

She gave Harry a healing potion, his injuries were more immediate pain than lasting. To Violet she gave a little ointment.

When the two teachers arrived and had learned the story, both were outraged.

"Miss Potter, you will give me the control immediately and two weeks detentions!" said Dumbledore.

"And I will be writing to your parents!" snapped McGonagall.

"Miss Weasley, I am afraid I must give you a detention also...you will report to Madame Pomfrey for a fifteen minute session, in...ten seconds" she said winking at Ginny.

Hogwarts really wasn't all that bad.

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	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

Chapter Eleven – Professor Bailey

The morning after running and exercise was not fun for Harry. His joints were stiff and his muscles were aching, but he continued nonetheless. When he sat down to breakfast his appetite was only rivalled by Ron's.

After saying goodbye to Ginny and Colin and being joined by Susan, Hannah and Justin – the Hufflepuffs – they made their way to the transfiguration classroom.

Professor McGonagall started the lesson by lecturing them, continued the lesson by lecturing them and ended it by lecturing them. She said that a lot of the work done that year would be theory, all though there would be a lot of practical as well.

By the time the bell rang to signal the short break between classes, even Harry and Hermione were welcoming the end of the lesson.

When they reached the Defence room, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Justin were looking extremely eager to get inside. They entered the class just as the bell rang for class to begin. Harry took a seat, alone by the front of the room, there were no spaces next to his friends.

"Welcome, to Sixth Year Defence Against the Dark Arts!" purred Professor Bailey, walking into the room. Harry was on high alert; previous instructors for him in this subject were often fond of testing him.

"Now, I understand that you have been somewhat disturbed in your learning of this subject over the years so today, we will have a little quiz for a bit of the lesson then, something better the second bit!"

She then began to go around the class asking questions, the most notable were Hermione, Seamus and Violet.

"Miss Granger, name me three offensive spells?" she asked.

"Stupefy, Diffindo and Reducto." She answered immediately.

"Good, Mr Finnegan,yes?" Seamus went bright red and nodded.

"What is the substance Werewolves cannot come into contact with?"

"S...silver" he said staring at her with awe.

"Excellent, Miss Potter, is it?"

"Don't you know who I am? I am the best at Defence in the school as well as my singing talents!" said Violet looking Professor Bailey up and down.

"Miss Potter it must be, and please, don't be rude. Name me one of the unforgivable curses?"

"Erm...the bat bogey hex?" said Violet completely stumped.

"No Miss Potter. I would have accepted the cruciatus curse, the imperius curse or the killing curse. Clearly even the best have off days...never mind though, we can work on it" she smiled.

When she came to Harry she grinned at him.

"Now! The second Potter, I understand that my subject is an area of expertise for you, being a Captain in the army." She winked at him.

"Here is one that is cheating a little bit, but I'm sure you will know the answer; What is one of the most powerful forms of magic that can destroy even the most substantial objects to mere ashes?"

"Fiendfyre. It will take the form of animals usually associated with fire such as snakes, chimeras and dragons. Not only can it destroy large objects but it can obliterate dark magic. If a human is hit by it, it is rumoured that it can destroy the very soul." He answered.

"Very good, and tell me, have you ever used it?"

"Once or twice...I have found it is a far more efficient defence against dementors than a patronus, as it destroys the souls they feed off."

"Excellent Mr Potter, I will have to keep my eye on you, make sure you don't take my job!" she said placing her hand on Harry's shoulder.

After the 'quiz' the class were ordered to stand. Professor Bailey stood up and waved them to the side of the room, stacked.

"Now for the practical portion of the lesson!" Bailey, wandered over to a cupboard in the room and brought out a clothes rail with what looked like people hanging from them. Harry smiled; he knew what they were.

"These are battle-golems! They are dummies that will fight back against you. There is no need to adjust the levelling." She held up a what looked like a fingerprint pad, "Put your finger on this, it will recognize your level and activate how many golems you can fight and adjust the level! Who wants to go first?"

Dean put his hand up, and walked over to the pad, placing his finger on it.

"Two golems at half power, good Mr Thomas.!" Smiled Bailey

Dean managed to take out the first golem, however he was too busy concentrating on that one to notice the other.

Ron was against the same as Dean, Seamus was against one golem on full power, Hermione two on three quarter power. They were all knocked out.

"Miss Potter, your up!" Violet strutted forward.

"I am not sure there are enough of them here, Professor." She said.

"Well let's wait and see" smirked Bailey.

Violet was up against one, on the lowest power level. It won in under ten seconds. When she was revived she complained of a malfunction in the golem.

When it was Harry's turn he placed his finger on the pad.

"...what?" said Bailey looking at the screen.

"No...it is right, we used these in the army"

"Very well then Harry, thirty golems at full power!" The class gasped.

Harry stepped into the combat area ready to take on the golems. The first spells flew at him.

"Uh, Professor could you turn down or off my bands?"

"I haven't got my control yet Harry!" she gasped.

"Ok then, no magic it is!" he relented.

Harry took a combat position, dodging the spells sent at him. He ran at the first group of golems and kicked some, punched some in points that represented where a pressure point would be on a human, knocking the golems out.

This continued, albeit he was hit by a number of harmful spells, including a few diffindos.

Finally it was Harry against one golem, he decided to use a wandless stunner. He brought his arm down, sending it out, but immediately he felt something was wrong...like the power he had once wielded just wasn't there.

Thankfully the golem had been taken out, but Harry suddenly felt empty. He walked back into the classroom area looking at the ground, feeling depressed. He took his seat at the front of the classroom, silent.

"Well done Harry!" Bailey smiled at him, "If you want to give me some _private tutoring_ you are more than welcome to!" she winked again.

Harry half-heartedly smiled back, and nodded. Things at that moment seemed to hit home for Harry. His best friend was dead, by his own hand. The person he had respected his whole life, who had been like a father, was dead. The place in the world, the army, where he belonged had been taken away from him. His family hated him, and his magic – _his own _magic – was being taken away. Things couldn't get any worse. It took all his will not to do something drastic and run away...Wilson wouldn't have wanted that though.

When the class ended Harry got up and quickly left, alone. He made his way outside, he didn't care about lunch. He couldn't give a damn about anything much right now. He walked around the lake, eventually stopping by a tree, and sitting down.

He sighed, _Why am I letting people rule MY life? They made me into their weapon; and now that they have their weapon I'm too much for them! I should show them...I could show them! Show them that I'm not just a weapon, that they can't control me! I'm a person too!_

He shook his head in disbelief; _listen to me! I sound just like...just like, Neville...he would know what to do now...but he's not here...I killed him...Maybe I am dangerous..._

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a pretty redhead, who came and sat down next to him.

"Sickle for your thoughts?" she asked softly.

He sighed and smiled at her, "I'm just fed up..."

"Of what?"

"Other people controlling my life." He laughed bitterly.

"Thats understandable" said Ginny.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean it can't have been easy for you people deciding the decisions in your life for you. It's unfair to be honest, they are being totally hypocritical! What brought this on?"

"It was Defence, and I attempted to use magic...it made everything hit home in my life...nothing seems to be going right!"

"Really? I am quite insulted by that Harry..." Ginny laughed.

"Well...I am glad to have you guys around and all...but I want to be protecting you! I want to be out there fighting! It's how I was raised!"

"I understand Harry," she said taking his hand, "I remember something someone very wise told Ron once, rise above it!"

She was right. Harry looked at his watch and remembered the advice his Granddad had given him so long ago, go on anyway. And he was going to do that.

"Thanks Gin" he said, getting up with her hand still in his, they walked back to the Great Hall.

--

Harry continued to live as a student, deep down though he was getting frustrated. It was a week before Haloween when something big happened. Harry was going down to the hall for breakfast after his usual morning run.

In the Hall things seemed to be in chaos. Harry strode up to the head table, all the way to Dumbledore.

"Sir, what is happening?" he asked

"Harry, bad news from the war I'm afraid...Diagon Alley and Godric's Hollow were taken this afternoon...two simultaneous attacks, I am told."

"Damn...what about the refugees? Where are they going to?"

"Hogsmeade- it is the only safe Wizarding location left I am afraid..."

An owl flew into the Hall, straight for Harry and Dumbledore. It gave Harry a letter;

_Captain Potter,_

_I am writing after we have lost Diagon Alley and Godrics Hollow. I need to warn you of a new death eater...he is unlike any of the others. He is as powerful as Voldemort himself! They weren't wearing the traditional death eater mask, or the mask of the elites, this mask seemed burned into his face, solid gold._

_I fear that after losing these two locations they will target Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Please sir, I served under you in previous missions, and now that Captain Longbottom, General Wilson and Major Greer are dead we need you to lead us in the army! Please, come back to us Captain._

_Yours,_

_Sergeant Peter Ward._

"Dumbledore!" came a voice from the door.

_Oh no..._thought Harry as he recognized the voice.

Rufus Scrimgeour stood at the entrance to the Great Hall.

"Rufus! Not here, please!" The Great Hall went silent as the Minister came in.

"Students are to go to their common rooms; all today's classes are cancelled!" The exodus began, Hermione and Ron waiting to speak to Harry, who was staying.

"Harry, you heard Dumbledore – Common room!" Hermione insisted.

"No, I'm staying here...apparently the commander of the army is dead, if that is true – then I am the next highest rank, which means I am the new commander of the army."

There was a stunned silence, where Harry ushered them out the Great Hall.

"Now Dumbledore, we need a meeting – I have people waiting outside."

In walked about fifty influential people in the Wizarding world, all now refugees.

Things were heating up in the war.

**Sorry about the delay in updates – I was out making the most of the last few days of my holidays...**


	13. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

Chapter Twelve – Summit and Test

Everyone took a seat around one of the house tables. Sitting around it were most of the order of the phoenix (Harry's parents included, much to his dismay), leaders of the auror forces and ministry leaders. At the heads of the table sat Scrimgeour and Dumbledore.

Scrimgeour began the meeting;

"A-hem! Ladies and Gentlemen! As you know, we are here to discuss the situation in the war, as it stands the only magical territories still held by the light are Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Our numbers stand at 503 army members, 2000 aurors and around 200-300 volunteers made up of members of the order of the phoenix and people willing to fight. The death eater forces are over 10,000 strong..."

"We can't beat that!" shrieked Hestia Jones from her seat, "we are totally outnumbered!"

"Enough, Please!" snapped Scrimgeour. "Now, what is our course of action?"

Moody was the first to speak; "What we can't do is attack them! We should wait until they come to us, prepare defences and such – trap 'em!"

"Yes, but the only place defendable is Hogwarts – what of those in Hogsmeade?" countered Snape.

"Surely a waiting game, is dangerous! That gives You-Know-Who time to prepare and build up his forces!" said Remus Lupin.

"No..."said Harry, many people looked in shock at a sixteen year old in the meeting. "Voldemort won't wait – he will send a small attack within the month, he will test our defences. A reconisance patrol if you will."

"Who is this boy, who believes he knows best – I thought students were supposed to go to their common rooms? Albus what is this?" shouted an angry Sturgis Podmore.

"This boy," retorted Harry "Is, for the time being, in charge of the army, as the highest remaining rank – Captain!"

"That is another thing we need to discuss, the new man in charge of the army – the existing one had unfortunately died at Diagon Alley..." said Scrimgeour.

"Why discuss it?" grunted Moody, "We have a perfectly good one in Captain Potter."

"I hardly think that appropriate, Alastor!" was the response.

"Who else then?" asked Moody.

"Good question...Major Potter, I hereby place you in-charge of the army!" James grinned smugly.

"Scrimgeour, I am warning you – this is not a joke, there are lives at stake here! He doesn't know the first thing about the army, if you want to win this war, let me at least fight in it!"

"That is quite enough thank you!" said Scrimgeour.

Harry stood up; "How much longer can the light hold out with incompetence like this at our head! Seriously! Do we want to lose this war? Because if we do, we are going the right way about it!"

"Right Harry, that's it, you are no longer a Captain! You are no longer an officer!" smirked James.

Harry laughed bitterly, "I couldn't care less about my rank! I care about the people, I don't want them to die! A few weeks ago I fought against a group of death eaters, they could power up in the same way I could! If they can, then I am damn sure Voldemort can...how many of you can do it?"

There was silence.

"And you are keeping me out of the fighting! You know maybe Nev was right in switching sides...they actually look as though they can survive."

And with that he turned and left a shocked meeting room.

--

The results of the meeting were varied. There were huge refugee camps set up in Hogsmeade, needless to say Scrimgeour and the Potters, amongst others, would be staying at the Castle. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade would be built up defensively and all volunteers would be trained.

James Potter remained in charge of the army, Mad-Eye Moody in charge of the aurors.

Nothing had been decided in terms of what would happen in the event of a full scale attack, they just hoped there wouldn't be one.

The mood amongst the students though remained up-beat and jovial in the build up to the Halloween feast. Harry though was an exception, he ignored his friends, focussed in class and planned for every possible situation that could arise in the war. He finally relaxed on Halloween, though he was expecting an attack soon. He was relaxed enough to even go to the feast;

"Welcome Students to the annual Halloween Feast!" said Dumbledore at the staff table, "Now to introduce the food, I would like to welcome Violet Potter to the stage to sing the school song!"

There was a collective groan amongst the students and a small smattering of applause. Violet got up on stage and took her breath in for the first line of the song. Thankfully she was interrupted by the sound of an alarm going off.

It signalled that there was an attack on Hogwarts. Since most fighters were in Hogsmeade, Harry sprung into action. He pulled off his robes into his combat gear he had taken to wearing underneath and approached the stage.

"Professor Dumbledore?"

"Very well, Harry, I place you in charge. Give me a sit-rep." He waved his wand and the limiters fell to the floor. Harry felt on top of the world.

He powered up, causing many students to gasp. He took flight and left the hall at speed, arriving back under a minute later.

"There is about fifty of them, one elite...I'd give them ten minutes maximum." He said.

"Very well, carry on – I will assemble the order." He responded.

Harry immediately took captain mode, barking orders to the students.

"Ok Seventh Year Prefects, get your houses back to the dorms now!" There was a delayed response.

"DOUBLE TIME!!" he yelled, which got the students moving. He stood by the door making sure everyone left. Ginny hung back to speak to him.

"Harry! Be careful!" she called to him

"Don't worry, Gin, I will be" he reassured her.

When all the students were on their way to their common rooms Harry flew outside to the gates. It was there he would fight the Death Eaters. A few seconds later, the teachers arrived behind him.

"Is this all we have?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Albus contacted your father, he refused to send reinforcements from the army, aurors or the order – he thinks this is diversion for a bigger attack." Responded Professor Flitwick.

"Damn...the idiot. Ok, listen up – when they come we will hold out ground!" He walked out in front of them and walked from one gate post to the other. "They will NOT pass these gates!" Harry turned around sensing the presence of dark magic behind him.

--

Students in Gryffindor Tower looked from their windows at the action, as did Students in Ravenclaw Tower and Hufflepuff Hall. They were scared, but there was a morbid fascination of what was about to happen.

Ginny Weasley stood at the front of those watching, fighting back tears; she was so scared for Harry. But she knew this was what he did best. All around her there was a buzz of anxious chat.

"Did you hear him? There is an elite down there! Dumbledore will have his hands full..."

"Dumbledore? I don't think he could beat Barty Crouch Jr, he is like the second in command to You-Know-Who, we better hope that _he _isn't the elite!"

Violet Potter spoke up; "Well I for one am worried! They have put my idiot brother in charge of defending us. I bet you are all slaughtered by morning, they will spare me of course, after all-"

Ginny spun round, "Oh shut up you stupid snob! Your brother is out there fighting, and probably winning, which is more than you are doing! So if you want to keep talking that way, then you go out and fight! If we are lucky we might just get rid of you!"

There was a stunned silence, then a scream from one of the students with Omnioculars- Barty Crouch _was_ there.

--

There was a large death eater force marching forward, as silver masked individual at its head.

"Stop right there!" shouted Harry. To his surprise they did stop. The elite at the front took a step forward, taking his mask off.

"Ah, Potter!" said Barty Crouch Jr. "So nice to see you! My master sends his warmest regards!"

"The only thing Voldemort is sending is you, on a suicide mission, Barty" countered Harry.

Crouch laughed; "I admire your audacity, saying the dark lords name, insulting his second in command."

"Second, Barty? He obviously values you so much, if he was willing to put Neville in that position when he joined..." Harry had obviously touched on something of a soft spot for Crouch as his reaction showed.

"What do you know Potter!" he spat, "I have been taught directly by the Dark Lord since you were walking! I am his apprentice, I am his number two and no little whelp can take that!"

"Whatever you say, Barty. Now I am going to ask you politely, leave here at once and tell Voldemort that he need not test us, he will fail."

"I'm afraid that won't do, you are going to have to be..._impolite!_" he grinned.

"That is fine with me..." Harry stepped back in line with the other teachers, next to Dumbledore.

"Leave Crouch to me," he muttered, "We don't know what tricks he has up his sleeves."

"Very well Harry" he responded.

Harry nodded to the other teachers, who became ready to attack or defend.

"REDUCTO!" screamed Crouch, beginning the battle.

The other death eaters followed suit, throwing the blasting hex at the Hogwarts staff and Harry. They brought up shields, sending the hexes right back, this thankfully took out about ten of them.

"CHARGE!" was Crouch's next order.

"HOLD YOUR LINE!" screamed Harry in response.

The death eaters ran forward, sending off various spells, in preparation to fight close combat. Harry and Dumbledore both sent off powerful spells (Harry a wave of legbreaking curses, followed by disarming spells, Dumbledore conjuring various creatures to attack) This combination took out twenty more, making things more even.

Only the more powerful and astute death eaters remained. They engaged the Hogwarts force in combat, Harry was duelling Crouch's number two, who was going all out defensive – he knew some very powerful shields. He finally took him out.

He looked round in time to see the killing curse hitting Professor Burbage, the muggle studies professor. The work of Barty Crouch, who took advantage of the hole in the line to attempt to slip through unnoticed into the grounds.

Harry was the only one to see him do this, so sent off some very powerful (and not entirely light) spells to take out the death eaters closest to him, then set off after him.

--

The students watched the battle with awe, who knew the boring old teachers were so powerful! There was horror when they saw Charity Burbage fall, many of her students bursting into tears. That was quickly forgotten when they saw a death eater heading into the grounds, then total feat overtook them as it was confirmed it was Barty Crouch.

The fear was alleviated slightly when they saw the dark figure of Harry Potter moving at a fast pace after him (Harry had powered down for the time being).

Crouch stopped to face Harry, who stopped as well. There were a few minutes of circling each other, before what the students stared at in awe, began.

Harry sprinted after Crouch, who cottoned onto the fact he was being followed, tried to outrun him, however foresaw this as a frivolous plan and stopped to face his enemy.

"That is enough Crouch, stand and fight me." Growled Harry.

"Potter...now I have you on your own, the Dark Lord has an offer for you! He wishes you, one of such power to join him! He sees you as one with immense potential. He doesn't want to control you like these fools, he wants you to be a general in his army, he wants you to lead his forces in conquering continents! He offers you power!"

"This is how you got Neville, isn't it Crouch! Well you won't get me! I would request that you tell Voldemort that there is no hope in hell, but you won't be leaving here alive!"

"Just think what could have been! I will fight you and win Potter, I know your little tricks too!" he smirked.

He powered up white, then golden. Harry was slightly shocked that he could do this, but didn't show it. He responded by going golden.

Crouch sent a flurry of spells at Harry, which he dodged, though a few did hit him. He responded by sending back is own flurry, to which Crouch erected a shield. Harry's spells pounded at the shield eventually cracking it and hitting Crouch.

He ran at Harry at great speed, with a conjured sword in his hand. Harry dodged his overhead swing, but didn't anticipate him stopping the arc so quickly that he brought the blade around across Harry's back.

Harry cursed and summoned his own sword from the dormitories; a shock for the students watching.

Crouch swung at Harry's stomach, Harry jumped high over Crouch catching his sword in mid-air. He landed and spun around, parrying Crouch's attack.

They continued to battle with the blades for the next ten minutes, both sustaining injuries. Harry was on top, he had been able to control his ability for longer than Crouch and it showed – he was lagging behind. The elite death eater's golden glow, began to fade becoming white once more.

Harry took full advantage of this and started throwing spells, on top of his sword attacks at Crouch. The result of this was Crouch was struggling to defend himself, and was being forced back into the walls of Hogwarts. Finally he was back against the wall and Harry threw a spell which caused his sword to fly out of his hand; his wand soon followed.

Harry raised his sword to Crouch's neck, just as the teachers arrived on the scene, having won the battle at the gate.

"Harry, that is enough, we shall take him into custody." Said Dumbledore.

"I am afraid not, he is too powerful...any last words Crouch?"

Crouch spat at Harry; "Things are not as you think! We have yet to unleash our weapon upon you!" he laughed, as Harry plunged the sword into his neck.

Harry pulled his weapon out, roughly.

"Harry! What...have you no mercy!" asked Dumbledore, incredulously.

"Not for him...no." Harry spat. He conjured a holster for his sword on his back, and put it in.

"This was a test. Like I said would happen! Did you listen? NO! And now one of your friends is dead..." he shook his head, "Things need to change.

He powered down and strode inside. He ignored the stinging pain from his back and legs, where Crouch had cut him and continued on to the common room.

--

The students cheered as Harry began to win the duel against Crouch. They had watched in horror as Harry was hurt, and in shock when Crouch had powered up. Harry began to push Crouch back into the wall adjacent to them. They cheered when their teachers arrived – surely they had won.

Then they saw Harry kill Barty Crouch. The cheering ceased – they did not know what to make of it. On the one hand that was Voldemort's number two, down and out, but he had been killed so mercilessly. A nervous buzz of chatter filled the common room.

"Merlin...that was intense" said Colin to his group of friends.

"Yeah..."muttered Ron, in shock at what he had just seen.

The chatter stopped when the portrait hole creaked open. People stared as a bloody Harry Potter walked in, sword strapped to his back.

"Everyone ok?" he asked.

There was complete silence. The a slow applause sounded, it quickened and soon everyone was clapping for Harry – except Violet.

Ginny ran full pelt at Harry, tears streaming down her face, and jumped into his arms.

"See, I told you I'd be careful – didn't I?"he said as she wept into his shoulder.

"What do you call that then?" she said pointing to the cuts on his body.

"Oh..." He muttered, the pain and exhaustion overtook, as the adrenaline that had kept him going faded and he collapsed.

**R&R**


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen – Announcements and their Effects

Harry's defeat of Voldemort's number two quickly circulated around the refugee camps. All throughout Hogsmeade and Hogwarts he became a beacon of hope in the war. This, needless to say, annoyed Violet and James to no end.

Harry woke up the day after his battle in the hospital wing.

"Oh my head..."he groaned. He looked around and saw Ginny smirking at him.

"Thats what you get when you go off fighting and _aren't _careful" she said, arms crossed.

"Oh haha..." he muttered

"How are you?" she said leaning into hug him.

"Better, thanks. How is everyone else?"

"Everyone is ok, thanks to you... a bit shaken though, after they saw you well, take out Crouch."

"I had to do it. I don't regret it, he would have killed so many more if I hadn't" he responded, looking down at his hands.

"Well I don't blame you and I think you were really brave to do make a decision like that." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and hugged him; "I am glad you are ok though."

"Miss Weasley! That is not appropriate behaviour for the hospital wing! Twenty points from Gryffindor, and back to your common room!" Snapped the voice of Professor Bailey from the door.

"But, Professor I was just..."Ginny explained.

"Enough! Now back to your common room or I will make it detention!" she said, sounding very angry.

Ginny sighed; "Bye Harry...".

She walked out of the Hospital Wing, leaving Harry alone with Professor Bailey.

"Hello Harry!" she grinned.

"Hi Professor" he answered.

"Just thought I'd pop in and see how you were doing..." she said, sidling over to him.

"I'm fine Professor...I wasn't tip top last night, but I am better now. How are you, you put up quite a fight last night!" he smiled.

Bailey giggled girlishly, "I am fine! You put up the biggest fight out of all of us! You were _so _brave!" she touched his arm.

Harry felt slightly uncomfortable; "Thanks...".

"No Harry, it's me who should be thanking you...if it wasn't for you, well...I don't want to think about it!"

She leant over to him and kissed him on the cheek, similar to what Ginny had been thrown out for. "Thank you" she whispered in his ear.

That evening at dinner, after Harry had been discharged from the hospital wing (and unfortunately had the limiters back on), Professor Dumbledore stood up to make some announcements.

"Now, students, I have a number of things that must be said!" he boomed.

"As you know last night there was an attempted attack upon the Castle. Some of you may not know, but the staff along with Mr Harry Potter defended the castle. Harry in particular defeated a death eater elite. And so I hope you will join me in thanking those who defended you last night!"

He started clapping and everyone else (apart from a big group of Slytherins) joined in.

"Now, on a lighter note, I have much pleasure in inviting you all to a Yule Ball this Christmas eve. There will be many refugees invited to this ball, so it isn't a school run event. I hope that you can all find a partner to go with, whether it be from Hogwarts or beyond these walls. Third years and below, will have their own private celebrations in their common rooms. That is all."

There was a buzz of excitement through all the females in the hall; a ball meant new dresses, nice hair and make-up and a date with a boy! The boys in the hall groaned; a ball meant dress robes...and asking a girl.

Harry was one of the few boys not groaning, he expected the ball to be similar to the one he attended many years ago, where he got captured. Colin wasn't groaning either he was discussing dresses and dates with the girls. Harry felt the horribly familiar feeling of being watched, though unlike previous occasions he didn't react by whipping out his wand or firing any spells – these stares were predatory. From girls eyeing him up as potential date material.

"What did Dumbledore mean find a partner?" he asked Seamus.

"Isn't it obvious? We have to find a date to go with....you know boy and girl – eh no offence Colin – I'm going to ask Hannah, me thinks..." he chuckled.

"Oh..."was Harry's reply. He didn't really know what to do...he would probably ask Ginny- _tomorrow _he though nervously.

He made his way back up to the common room alone, thinking about when and where he could ask her. In front of him was Violet and her friends.

"Why would anyone go with my brother, you saw what happened last night! If they went on a date with him they'd just be painting a big target on their head!"

"I know...but he is just so hot!" squealed Parvati, to the agreement of the other girls, apart from Violet.

"Ugh! Sometimes I wonder why I let you hang out with me..."

Harry stopped listening. As much as he hated to admit it Violet was right – if he went with Ginny she would be a target for Voldemort and his minions.

He hadn't mentioned it to anyone yet but he was worried about Voldemort. If Crouch could 'go-gold' then Voldemort certainly could. And then there was this mystery death eater who had won the territories in England for them. Harry stopped worrying about that then and there- it must have been Crouch who had won them the land – he was Voldemort's number two.

He was walking along a deserted corridor, alone with his thoughts, when he heard a voice calling out to him;

"Harry? Fancy a cuppa?" said Professor Bailey as he walked past her office.

"Oh...yeah, ok." He muttered and walked into the office.

Bailey was dressed in a pair of silk pyjamas and a silk dressing gown. She Bailey told him to take a seat on the two seater sofa in the office while she made the tea. She came and sat next to him, handing him a cup of steaming tea. (AN: It is just tea!)

"You looked pretty wound up about something in the corridor, anything I can help you with?" she offered, bringing her legs up on the sofa, facing Harry.

"Erm it's silly really" he said- he didn't want her to know about his worries on Voldemort. "Its the dance..." he half lied.

"Ah... I know what the problem is" she said smiling at him, winking.

"You do?" he asked slightly shocked.

"Yep! And I can fix it!" Harry looked even more shocked at this, Bailey continued, "You don't know how to dance – I bet you 99% of the guys here have the same problem! I will teach you"

Harry thought this over – he could reveal the truth about his worries about the dance, but that would be slightly embarrassing for him or he could accept Bailey's offer and improve his dance skills, and give Ginny a dance at the dance even if he wasn't going to go with him.

"Eh, sure! That would be great! Thanks!" he smiled.

Bailey beamed. "Wonderful! Meet me in my quarters tomorrow at eight, oh and don't worry I will cover for you in class!"

Harry smiled downed his tea and left the office. Things might not be too bad, he would dance with Ginny- well- and not make her a target. _Things could be worse_, he thought and worse they got.

For the next month and a bit he was constantly hounded by girls, asking him to the dance to which he would politely decline. Then there were the girls who would ask him to ask her to the dance, to which he would politely decline.

Then there were the letters sent to him from the refugees from Hogsmeade, also offering to go to the dance with him some including photos and other such items (over twenty undergarments!).

Harry would write back and politely decline.

As the weeks grew on Ginny became colder and colder toward him, eventually just ignoring him.

His lessons with Bailey were going well too, they had gone through most types of dance so far, with Bailey being outrageously flirty with him, though Harry was completely oblivious.

_Things could get better._

Ginny sat in the common room late one night, staring into the scarlet flames of the fire. She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Colin coming down the stairs.

"Hey Gin!" he beamed, cheery as ever, "What's up?" he frowned seeing pain upon her face.

"It's...it's nothing Colin." She said trying to put on a brave face.

"Don't lie to me Ginevra." Said Colin, arms folded, tapping his foot. "What is wrong?"

He wasn't all that surprised when the redhead burst into tears on the sofa. He ran over to her putting his arm around her. She poured out all her troubles to her best friend then and there;

"Its Harry! He hasn't asked me to the ball and doesn't look like he is even going to!" she bawled.

"I thought he liked me Colin! I really did...or was I just an idiot to think so?"

"Hey, Gin-Gin, you aren't an idiot! He is the idiot for not asking you! Then again I am sure he has a perfectly good reason for not doing so" he comforted her, not knowing how close to the truth he was.

"You really think so" she said sniffing.

"Yeah! Wait – what happened the last time he was at a ball and you were there?"

"He got captured...Oh no! I bet he thinks if he goes with me something bad will happen!" gushed Ginny, hitting the nail on the head, "But then what can I do about that!"

"Ginny, what would you rather do – go to the ball with him, or be his girlfriend."

"Be his girlfriend" said Ginny almost automatically.

"Well then what you should do is make him jealous, so that he will want you! Go to the ball with some hot guy!" he smiled

"Yeah...that might just work!" She grinned, wiping away her tears, "Thanks, Colin...you are awesome at girly chats!" she giggled kissing him on the cheek, before skipping away up the girl's stairs.

"Pah! Now I remember why I prefer guys!" he said rolling his eyes.

It was Harry's final dance lesson before the ball. Tonight he and Bailey were reviewing everything she had taught him, from asking a girl to dance, to waltzing, to the tango! They had finished for the evening and were sitting in Bailey's living room sipping cold butterbeers.

"So Harry, who is the lucky lady?" asked Bailey, nudging him and waggling her eyebrows.

"Oh...I haven't asked anyone, just going to go along for the experience I suppose." He trailed off.

"Really?" she asked looking shocked, yet pleased. " I thought you and Ginny Weasley would be going...are you eh?"

"Oh no we aren't. She is going with a guy called Terry Boot" he said failing to mask his disappointment. "What about you? Who is your lucky guy – Professor Snape, Mr Filch?" he laughed.

She hit Harry on the arm and laughed along, "No I am not going with anyone either" she sighed over-dramatically.

"Look at us, two boring old loners!" he chuckled.

"It doesn't have to be like that, though. I mean, we could go with each other? I mean it isn't a school function so the teacher/student thing doesn't really matter..." she said to Harry.

He was stunned, "Eh...well, I-I"

"I understand if you don't want to, it would probably be a bit weird for you..."

"No, I would love to go with you Professor" he smiled, he might as well have good time and Professor Bailey was _really _attractive, he would be the envy of all the other guys...except Colin.

"Really!" she grinned "Wow! That is great, but on the night I don't want any Professor this or Professor that- call me Kate."

She held out her hand to Harry who took it; "Hello Kate, I am Harry."

"Hello Harry, I am Kate, pleased to meet you!" she grinned.

"Wow this will shock the school" she continued, "Harry Potter's date to the dance is Professor Bailey!"


	15. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and no profit is being made from this story.**

Chapter Fourteen – Yule Ball

Violet Potter stomped into her parents quarters at Hogwarts, she was not in a good mood.

"MUM! DAD!" she yelled. James and Lily came running from a different room in their quarters, sensing that their daughter's tone of voice was not a good one.

"Yes Princess, what is it?" asked James.

"I am fed up with that stupid brother of mine! He is getting all the attention and he is cramping my style" she whined.

"Oh...well there isn't a lot we can do about that dear...that is other people doing that...we can't control other people." Said Lily

"NO! I want him out of Hogwarts or something! Ever since he came he has been making it horrible for me! Daddy, you are in with the minister – ask him to do something!"

"But Violet..."said Lily.

"NO!" she screamed stamping her foot.

"Don't worry Princess, Daddy will speak to the minister" said James, hugging his daughter.

"Thank you Daddy!" simpered Violet grinning evilly.

Rufus Scrimgeour sat in his office (an unused teacher's office at Hogwarts) thinking. He wasn't in a terribly good mood. The public wanted him out; under his reign Voldemort had taken everything except Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Then there was that Potter boy.

People were angry that he wasn't being allowed to fight in the war, they saw him as a beacon of hope! His thoughts were interrupted by James Potter entering his office.

"James! Good to see you, sit down, sit down!" he smiled.

"Thank you minister."

"Now what is it you came to see me for?"

"It is Violet..."

"Ah! Our 'Chosen One'! What seems to be the problem?"

"Well her brother's presence at Hogwarts is...ah well affecting her learning" he said, lying.

"Ah yes well then something should be done about that!" _Brilliant! This and the pressure from the public finally gives me a decent excuse to go back on my word about him being at Hogwarts!_

He smiled; "James I have just the idea, now go and enjoy the festive period with your wife and daughter, I will take care of this"

"Thank you minister!" grinned James, leaving the office.

It was the evening of the ball; there was a huge atmosphere of excitement amongst the girls at Hogwarts and nerves amongst the boys. The girls had gone up to get ready about three hours before the dance, the boys leaving it about an hour.

Harry, who didn't really fancy going in extremely smart clothes, showered and then got changed. He wore a new pair of black skinny jeans, a black shirt and tie with the suit jacket he had gotten for Bill's wedding. He also wore a silver knitted scarf around his neck. On his feet; what else on an occasion like this – he purple boots. He decided to do his hair in the Josh Von Grimm style for the evening.

He walked into the common room with the other boys who were wearing suits and dress robes. Ron met up with Hermione, who he was going with. Dean and Seamus were going with Susan and Hannah, respectively. Ginny was waiting downstairs too. She smiled at Harry.

"You look...nice" she said

"Thanks Gin, you look beautiful" he grinned, she blushed.

"Well...I am meeting Terry soon so I had better go!" she gushed and walked out the portrait hole.

"Hey Harry! Who are you going with? Did you decide to take up one of the hotter girls who asked you on their offer?"said Dean

"No...I am going with someone who isn't a student" Harry said, mysteriously.

"Oh...I bet it is that really nice one who sent you her..." said Seamus to Dean, trailing off as he saw the look on Hermione's face.

"Wise of you not to finish that sentence, Finnegan, let's go everyone!" said Hermione.

The group walked down together until they reached the jam-packed entrance hall; it wasn't just students, the refugees from Hogsmeade had been invited too.

"Harry, we are going to go in ok? You can wait for mystery woman out here!" grinned Ron.

"Ok, see you in there." He smiled back.

He waited nervously for Professor Bailey..._no Kate! _Until eventually she came down the stairs, very elegantly.

She had her hair in a kind of half up-half down style and wore a purple dress which sat on her thighs, showing off her long legs well. The straps of the dress were about 3cm thick with sequins on them, showing off her arms well too.

Harry was speechless; "Wow...You look...I mean! You look beautiful...Kate." he said smiling.

"Thank you Harry!" She leant in and pecked him on the lips, and smiled, taking his hand "You look very handsome and very fashionable yourself! Shall we?"

Harry was still speechless from the kiss she had given him, but walked in with her nonetheless. The hall looked completely different; it had been enlarged to about five times its usual size to accommodate the guests and was filled with snow, Christmas trees and ice sculptures.

If looks could kill when they went in, he and Bailey would have died instantly. The girls looked at Kate with hate for taking the hottest guy off the market, and the guys looked at Harry with equal hate for getting in with the hot Professor.

Violet Potter was as angry as the girls, not because she was jealous of Bailey – no that was just wrong – but the fact that she and her partner had been overlooked as the 'happening couple'. Violet had snagged a date for the evening with the Tutshill Tornadoes, teen sensation chaser, Brevis Birch.

Over at the table where Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Terry, Seamus, Dean, Hannah, Susan and Colin (who was sadly dateless) sat, Harry's entrance caused quite a stir.

"Oh there is Harry!" said Hermione about to wave.

"Who is that he is with...she is a babe!" said Ron, only to be hit by Hermione.

"Really though who is it?" asked Ginny

"Wait...no, it can't be...I think that is Professor Bailey!" exclaimed Seamus.

"No it can't be, she wouldn't go with a student would she? IT IS!" responded Dean.

"Nicely done Harry!" chuckled Terry, not noticing _his _date's hurt expression.

Meanwhile back with Harry and Kate, they had taken a seat with Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Sinistra.

"Ah Harry, Kate! How nice to see you – Kate my dear you look lovely!" said Dumbledore jovially as they sat down.

"Thank you Albus, you look dashing yourself!" she laughed.

"Are you and Potter...?" asked McGonagall eying them suspiciously.

"Yes, Kate is my date tonight" Harry smiled.

"Oh...well, good for you." McGonagall responded incredulously, she obviously didn't mean it.

"Ah come Minerva, this isn't a school function, they are doing nothing wrong! Why I remember a certain Sirius Black asking you to a Yule ball many years ago!" he chuckled.

"Yes, Albus, that was a dare though!" snapped McGonagall.

The rest of the seated part of the evening went well, with the whole of Harry's table making small talk on many different topics – even Professor Snape joined in when the topic turned to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Then the dancing began. The band that evening were the Weird Sisters, who proved to be very popular with the students.

Kate stood up; "Come on Harry! I didn't teach you how to dance for nothing!" she grabbed his hand and led him onto the ice (non-slippery variety) dance floor.

They danced for over an hour, never swapping partners, but from the looks he was receiving from Ginny – the only other girl he wanted to dance with – her answer would be no.

The slow dance started up, Kate snaking her hands around Harry's neck and Harry putting his hands around her hips. The dance lasted for about five minutes, after which the band took a break.

Bailey whispered in Harry's ear. "Let's go outside and _cool off._"

Harry was going to say no, but then he saw Ginny holding hands with Terry and decided why the hell not?

He and Kate headed out hand in hand, leaving the castle and settling on slope, overlooking the lake. Harry took off his jacked and laid it on the ground for he and Kate to sit on.

She sat down on the jacket leaning back on her elbows. Harry joined her, she took his hand.

"Wow, look at the lake" she sighed, leaning her head on Harry's shoulders. The moon was illuminating the lake, reflecting everything – the stars and the falling snow.

"Tonight was so good, thank you for going with me...if you hadn't I might just have ended up going with Filch!" she giggled.

"Ouch!" chuckled Harry at the thought.

He felt her shoulder move off his head and before he knew what was going on she was kissing him, full on, on the lips.

He was completely taken aback. She moved to deepen the kiss and forced his mouth open with her tongue. Harry didn't know what to do he just remained frozen in shock.

He finally broke the kiss, breathing heavily. "What...ok..." he breathed, not thinking straight.

He looked up from Kate's smiling face and saw the last person he wanted to see; Ginny was standing there a pained expression upon her face, mouth open in shock.

"Gin!" Harry said. She turned around and ran away, tears streaming down her face.

"Harry...what is it?" asked Kate, confused.

"It's nothing...just...I can't explain. I need to go, but thank you for a..._wonderful _evening!" he said already getting up to run after Ginny.

He stopped running after a few seconds...he needed to think.

_Oh Merlin! What have I done...I wanted to protect her by not going to the ball with her! But I ended up just hurting her more by doing just that..._

_What have I done..._ He remembered back to when he had made his decision not to ask Ginny – why had he done that again?

_Violet...oh I am such an idiot! I based my decision on something my sister said! Ginny deserves better than me...._

He slowly trudged back into the castle, heading to the hall to try and find Ginny, he needed to apologise.

When he entered Rufus Scrimgeour noticed and so stood up to make a speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! If I could have your attention, if just for a moment!" he spoke.

"It is during dark times that we must celebrate these happy occasions...a situation which I deeply regret. I fully know I have made mistakes, which have partly led to the capture of major territories – they, I can only apologise for, I am only human."

"But tonight it is my great pleasure to announce what is an operation that will potentially win us this war!" People cheered, this was brilliant news!

Harry made his way through the hall, trying to find Ginny, whilst he listen to the idiot babbling.

"As you know, I took one of our greatest strengths from the battlefield- Harry Potter." People cheered even more when they heard Harry's name.

Harry stopped searching for Ginny and turned around – _what is he on about?_

"But now people I believe the key to our success lies within him! I give full control of the army back to Captain Potter!"

James looked livid at this.

"And as his first assignment, he will lead our forces out of the gates of Hogwarts, out of the safety of Hogwarts and he will recapture Diagon Alley!!"

People were going downright mental at this – they really believed it would work.

He heard Dumbledore at a nearby table – "What is this madness? There are ten thousand death eaters based at Diagon Alley, it is suicide!"

Harry stood, numb. People stopped cheering and turned to look at him – there was silence as they waited for him to say something.

_After what I have done to Ginny, I deserve this. I have come to Hogwarts and brought chaos – I have brought war to them, I have brought chaos to their lives...I belong out there on the battlefield. That is what I have been made for...to kill I am their weapon. A weapon who toys with the emotions of innocent, beautiful people, like Ginny. Maybe this is fate...I deserve what I get out there...even if it is suicide. What do I have left to live for?_

What he said next was practically a whisper, yet everyone heard him;

"I will lead the army to Diagon Alley."

**39,209**


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen – Home is Behind the World Ahead

The 'charge' as it were was to take place on Boxing Day. Harry spent Christmas day in solitude, getting as much training in as he could. Despite what day it was, there was a sombre mood throughout Hogwarts.

Finally Boxing day came. Harry, as the head of the army awoke early and changed into his ceremonial outfit. He wore a tight black top, on top of which he wore a hard leather chest-plate with a white phoenix emblazoned upon it. On his arms he wore leather armour with intricate designs upon them and on his hands, black gauntlets. The part he didn't necessarily agree with was the long black and red cape, but who was he to complain?

He strapped his usual sword to his back and kept his wands and daggers on their arms. There was to be a leaving ceremony, planned by Scrimgeour where the refugees and students would 'cheer them out the gates'.

He walked out the Castle, past the great hall where everyone was eating. Outside the castle stood, milling about, the 500 remaining soldiers. Amongst them stood familiar faces from his time, including one or two from Harry's own squad eight..._I should have know they would survive._

A lieutenant made his way over to Harry, leading a reigned horse – another ceremonial part of being the leader. Harry led his force around the side of the castle – the watchers would be coming out soon.

He formed them up, three men across behind him. He got on the horse and turned to face his soldiers.

"Ok guys listen in. Today we are going to march out with our heads held high! We are going to go and face those that want to kill everyone here head on! While there are so many here who could fight, staying in their beds cooped up behind these walls- We will fight them! You might ask me why we are going? You might tell me that we will die! And I will say to you if we don't die for today, fighting for what is right and for who we love – WHAT SHALL WE DIE FOR?" he shouted the last part, to the roars of approval of his men.

Inside Harry was of a different attitude; _I deserve this...I may die, but I am a bad person._

He began the march forward, slowly, the men behind him trudging slowly. They went around the corner, to the front of the castle, where everyone was lined up either side of a gap where they were to march.

They made their way towards the gate, ignoring the sad faces and occasional tears of those they walked past. There was one voice Harry couldn't ignore though; James Potter started shouting.

"Harry! Please don't do this, you'll die! Please!" he yelled, running alongside the soldiers.

"What do you care?" muttered Harry.

"What do I care!? You are my son, Harry! We may not see eye to eye, but I don't want you dead!"

"It is no more that I deserve..."he trailed off, leaving his father behind.

He continued marching forwards, he was approaching the gate. In the final few meters before the gate, he saw his friends, including Ginny. She had tears streaming down her face, she began to say something;

"Harry..."

"I'm sorry, Gin, I'm so sorry" he said shaking his head.

He carried on out the gate, which shut as the last man of the army followed through.

Harry had finally left Hogwarts.

Harry and his men walked cautiously through Diagon Alley, wands out, fully expecting an attack. There were supposed to be death eaters here...but where were they?

He looked about- _there! _At the top of the steps of Gringotts stood a group of death eaters, they didn't move, even though they had seen the army.

They laughed. This was eerie, it echoed around the empty shops and streets of Diagon Alley. There was a distant rumbling, thousands of death eaters exited the shops and flats, thousands more appearing at the windows and on the roofs. Many, many more apparated in. The full death eater force surrounded Harry and his army.

There was a moment of silence between them where everyone in Harry's force faced outwards against the gargantuan number of death eaters.

Harry nodded slowly to the men stood next to him then at the top of his voice screamed "CHARGE!"

Things at Hogwarts were dark. Harry had been gone over two weeks, there was a general feeling of no hope.

Ginny had been very distant with her friends, it was a horrible reminder, for her friends, of the time when she had been enchanted by the diary of Tom Riddle. This time Harry wasn't around to rescue her.

Things took a turn for the worst while the students were sitting at breakfast one morning. Several black owls flew into the hall, dropping their parcels randomly, though one flew to Dumbledore and Scrimgeour, who were sitting next to each other.

Dumbledore stood; "Nobody is to open these parcels, unless I say so!"

He opened his parcel, and took out a set of bloodstained armour – it was Harry's armour. Many students burst into tears at this, their saviour was dead!

The crying soon turned into screams as the other parcels opened magically – inside were a number of severed heads of members of the army. What had been predicted had come to pass; the army had been slaughtered in their attempt to re-capture Diagon Alley.

"Everyone is to go back to their common room! Classes are off for today. Prefects should make themselves available to talk to for those who received parcels." Said Dumbledore.

Things got gradually more hopeless for the students and refugees, they felt as if it was only a matter of time before the war was won by the dark, they only hopped they would be spared.

Then one night, it begun. The students were at dinner, when alarms went off. Dumbledore stood, just as an auror entered the hall.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir – Hogsmeade is under attack! There is too many of them...the refugees are coming to Hogwarts."

"Very well." Dumbledore sighed. "Get some of your men at the gates, I will prepare to activate the siege wards. Students to their common rooms please."

The students were used to this drill, they went up to their common rooms and watched the goings on from the windows.

"If Harry were her, he would be away seeing off those death eaters." grumbled Ron to Seamus and Dean.

"Yeah..."agreed Seamus.

They watched with sadness and dread as a seemingly endless line of refugees entered Hogwarts grounds. As the last few came through, a large group of Aurors flew in on brooms running through the gates. The few aurors who were guarding the gates pushed and they swung shut.

The wards obviously had gone up as the perimeter walls surrounding some sides of the Castle begun to grow upwards, the gate turned from mere railings to full iron and a silvery glow encased the grounds. Hogwarts was on lock-down.

Ginny looked out the window, an eerie green glow suddenly lit up her face; a giant Dark Mark lit up Hogsmeade. Students surrounding her burst into tears and screamed, the war was upon their doorstep.

She collapsed on the ground, tears cascading down her face.

_I tried to make Harry jealous by going to the dance with someone else, then I reacted badly when he went with someone who wasn't me! _

_I drove him away, I should have realized he would feel guilty...and he did. So he accepted that bloody suicide mission...and now he is dead – our one hope in this war is dead! Because of me..._

_The guy I love is dead! Because of me!_

James Potter sat alone on the sofa in his quarters.

_My son is dead...because of me. It was me who asked he be moved from Hogwarts – all because of Violet._

_I was a horrible father to that boy...I always favoured Violet before he left. I didn't even give him a childhood! I should have been the one to teach him about girls and Quidditch....instead I kept him cooped up making him do things an adult should be doing, while I showered all my attention and money on Violet._

_Then when he came back! He treated be badly, but even then not as badly as I treated him. And of course I react horribly to that...start to resent him and treat him like dirt. I should have been proud he was a higher rank than me! Instead I just bloody well undermine his rank!_

_I hope up there in heaven you can hear me when I say; Harry I am so sorry...not that I deserve your forgiveness..._

Lily Potter lay upon her bed, weeping. She was in a state of shock from learning of her son's death.

"Harry" she wept "Why did I ever send you away!"

Lily Potter had always been unsure about sending her child away to the army. She wanted to be a loving mother...but James had said that showering Harry with too much attention would be bad for him...that he would miss it when he left for the army.

So she put all her attention upon Violet, under the illusion that she would face hardship in her future due to being the prophesized chosen one.

_Violet..._she thought _I am sick of that little brat! It is partly her fault that my son is dead...she demands that he goes! Well no more! I refuse to spoil her any more!_

Violet Potter sat upon the comfiest chair in the Gryffindor common room, having thrown a third year girl off it. She smiled smugly to herself;

_Now that distraction of a brother is out of the way the attention goes back to me!_

If you think Violet would feel even the slightest twinge of guilt, you are wrong...her conscience died long ago.

_Hopefully I will be able to milk this as much as I can...I can imagine it now: Now that my twin brother is dead, part of me is dead...but I have to survive, that's what Harry would have wanted._

_Hah! When I have killed Voldemort, like the prophecy says, then I will become a famous heroine, not just singer!_

What Violet did not realize that she probably wouldn't defeat Voldemort, that there may not be an after the war.

The students and refugees of Hogwarts stood in a huge group, some sat, others stood, they were all facing one thing. It was a large memorial; to remember those who had died in the attempt to regain Diagon Alley. They had their backs to the forest, so that people could stand in front of the memorial and look at Hogwarts, knowing what those who died, tried to save.

There were about 7,000 people in total. At that moment Percy Weasley was speaking;

"Although I wasn't a member of the army who would go out and fight, I saw what they did and how hard they worked to protect us. From the privates right up to the Generals, they worked tirelessly for us...and now they have made the ultimate sacrifice."

Dumbledore stood after Percy had sat; "Thank you Mr Weasley, for those touching words. I would like to now pay tribute to the fallen, but one in particular. Harry Potter. Despite a somewhat rough childhood, Harry was a kind person. He respected those above him and looked out for those below him. Even when he was brought to Hogwarts against his wishes, he remained positive and made friends. This is the boy who protected us on numerous occasions, many when we didn't know he was even doing it."

"There was a dark period in his life when he was taken to be tortured for a year, even after that he remained a kind person, undamaged – such a testament to his personality. Why even when his best friend – who many regarded as his brother – turned against him and died Harry-"

"He's not dead!" shouted a familiar voice. A bloody and bruised Harry Potter emerged from the Forbidden Forest, limping.

"Neville isn't dead...he survived, and he is more powerful than ever!" he said before collapsing on the ground unconscious.

AN: One of the best moments, I believe, in film is when Faramir's sacrifice for Gondor and his father in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. This chapter is named after the song Pippin sung as Faramir charged across the Pelennor Feilds to Osgiliath. His exit from Minas Tirith is how I imagine Harry exiting (hence the horse!)


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen – Healing

"I am afraid Harry is in a magical coma, induced by shock and magical exhaustion" diagnosed Madame Pomfrey to an anxious James Potter, Lily Potter and Ginny Weasley.

"Will he wake up?" asked James

"It is hard to tell..." sighed Madame Pomfrey " There have been cases where patients just need to _recharge, _others...well, they don't wake up."

Ginny and Lily hugged each other both in floods of tears.

"Don't worry girls," smiled James, putting his arm around Lily, "Harry is a fighter, he will wake up – just you see. Come on Lils, we have to go to the meeting."

"But Harry!" she started.

"Ginny will watch Harry for us, won't you Ginny?"

"Of course, Mr Potter" Ginny said, trying to smile.

James left the ward, almost having to drag his wife with him. They made their way out of the Hospital Wing, making the short walk to the Great Hall, which now doubled as a meeting room.

They were the last to arrive and so the meeting began.

Dumbledore began it; "As chief warlock upon the Wizengamont and Supreme Mugwump, I would like to initiate a vote of no confidence upon Minister Rufus Scrimgeour. All those in favour, raise your hands"

Almost everyone in the room raised their hands.

"Very well then, Rufus Scrimgeour, I hereby strip you of the position of Minister for Magic, and all the benefits that come with it. Do we have any nominations for a new minister?"

"Harry Potter!" shouted someone, only half joking.

Dumbledore chuckled; "I am afraid he is underage, and unconscious... Are there any others?"

"Kingsley Shacklebolt" called Alastor Moody.

"I second that!" said Remus Lupin

"All those against?" asked Dumbledore, no one raised their hand.

"Kingsley?"

"Fine with me, Albus" he smiled.

"Excellent, I hereby appoint Kingsley Shacklebolt as Minister for Magic. Kingsley, if you would care to chair the meeting from here?"

"Thank you Albus" he stood, "It is my deepest regret, that my first action as Minister, is to discuss the threat that is at our doorstep..."

"I fully expect that soon there will be a full scale attack upon the school by the Death Eaters. Our numbers currently stand at just under 3000 able fighters....theirs just over 10,000."

"And then of course there is you-know-who and Longbottom..." said Sirius gruffly.

"Well, we have Albus who can battle You-Know-Who, then Violet can fulfil the prophecy and kill him, as for Longbottom, the only one who stood a chance against him was..." trailed off Sturgis Podmore.

"Great!" said Moody, sarcastically, "We take out you-know-who, the leader and are left with the more powerful subordinate!"

"Harry isn't dead you know! He **will** wake up!" snapped James.

"No one is denying that, James" said Kingsley calming him, "But what we are worried about is that even without their two most powerful members, there is still an army of ten thousand at our gates – we need reinforcements!"

"Where are we going to get those Kingsley! The Vampire? With Voldemort! The Werewolves? With Voldemort! As are the giants, and let's just hope we don't have any of those to face!" Sirius shouted.

"We will think over our options Sirius...We can win this war!"

Ginny sat by Harry's bed, clutching his hand. Harry began to stir, he was mumbling things in his coma, that had to be a good sign.

"_Neville...no, I killed you..._"

He was reliving the trauma in his mind. Ginny thought how horrible it must be for Harry.

"_It doesn't matter...you don't need to do it..."_

Ginny was getting intrigued now, what had happened at that battle, how had Harry survived?

Harry remained in his catatonic state for two further weeks. All classes during this time had been cancelled and instead the students were instructed in combat and advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts. Ginny was forced to attend these lessons by her mother, who was at Hogwarts along with the rest of the refugees. The Weasley's were staying in a tent on the grounds.

It was during a lesson from Professor McGonagall and Remus Lupin that she saw Charlie sprinting towards her.

He said the sentence she had wanted to hear for over two weeks; "He's awake."

She sprinted to the hospital wing and was about to open the doors when she remembered the terms on which she was with Harry when he had left.

"Oh god...what do I say to him" she panicked, talking to herself.

"How about hello" said the familiar voice of Harry Potter from behind her.

She spun around and wrapped her arms around him!

"Harry, I am so sorry! I wanted to make you jealous so you would want to go out with me..."

"Shh Gin, the only reason I didn't ask you was because I thought you would be a target....you have no idea how much I wanted to though..."

"Oh Harry, we are all targets, Hogsmeade was tak- WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED!" she shouted at him, the fact he wasn't in the hospital just hit her.

"Gin" he laughed, softly, "The big part of that coma was so that I could recharge, now I have woken up it means I have! I am back to full fitness"

"Oh...well you just shocked me is all."

"I heard that you never left my bed...thanks" he smiled sincerely and kissed Ginny on the cheek who glowed red, but grinned.

"Do you want to come to the meeting now with me?" he asked looking at his Grandfather's watch, anxiously.

"Eh...ok?" shrugged Ginny.

The two walked hand in hand to the Great Hall where, once again, those there were waiting for a Potter.

There were various cheers and greetings from those attending the meeting, Harry just nodded to a few people. The meeting started.

"Now Captain Potter," said Kingsley, "If you could tell us what happened at Diagon Alley?"

Harry sighed, "Sir"

_Flashback_

"_CHARGE!" he yelled._

_Every member of the army did him proud, they flew into the death eaters and begun to take them out. Unfortunately they seemed far too outnumbered to be making even a small dent in the dark army._

_As his men fell, Harry kept on going, fuelled by a cross between anger and adrenaline. Harry, unknowingly, had battled his way to the steps of Gringotts. When he reached the fine white steps the death eaters that surrounded him stopped._

_Harry was panting heavily and looked around the last of his men were being put to death by the scumbags in masks. How were there so many of them? Then he listened – English was not the only language being spoken, French, German, Portuguese. There were African death eaters, American, Indian – even regional dialect!_

_He turned back to the elites stood on the steps. They stood aside, and behind them stood a death eater in a golden mask. This was the one who had killed General Wilson and Major Greer. _

_Revenge._

_Gold-Mask drew a large sword. Harry drew his sword. They began to circle each other warily, they both knew that the other was powerful._

_They both made a move at the same time, Harry sweeping his blade to Gold-Mask's side, Gold-Mask having an overhead swing, both blades hit each other before their targets. The battle quickened ,however remained in a stalemate style with each strike being like the first._

_Gold-Mask chuckled; "Looks like sword play is a draw...Potter is it?"_

"_Well, let's take it to the next level"_

_Gold-Mask powered up golden, which didn't surprise Harry. Harry responded by doing the same._

_They began to battle, with each throwing huge hits that the other had to dodge. Gold-Mask's attacks, however, seemed somewhat familiar._

_Harry was knocked back with a huge blast into a building, large bits of rubble scattering everywhere (even onto some death eaters)._

_Harry responded by levitating one of the larger blocks straight at Gold-Mask. He dodged it by flying into the air – he stayed there._

_**There's only one other person who could do that..**__thought Harry._

"_No..."whispered Harry, eyes wide open in shock. "It can't be..."_

_Gold-Mask started laughing. "What is it Potter! Bad memory?" _

"_Neville...no, I killed you..." murmured Harry._

"_No Potter" Neville spat, "You did much, much worse!"_

_Neville proceeded to peel off the golden death eater mask – literally peeled it off, it was as if it had been melted upon his face – there was skin being ripped off._

_When the mask was off, Harry gasped. In front of him was a shadow of his former friend – Neville's face was completely disfigured, there was little to no skin. It was as if he had been burned for hours._

"_You cursed me with this face! This scar..."_

"_Neville, you aren't dark! You never were! Come back to the light!" Harry pleaded, emerging from the stupor of seeing Neville's face._

"_Any chance of redemption disappeared when you destroyed my face like this...I must take revenge upon you and the rest of the Wizarding world who created me to be a weapon!"_

"_It doesn't matter...you don't need to do it..."_

"_It doesn't matter! How can you say that! You are good looking Harry! People would look twice at you because of it! Girls would love you! Me...they would look twice in horror...children would fear me, girls repulsed! You have made me a monster! The weapon has defected!"_

"_Nev..." Harry started._

"_Enough chat Potter! While you played the good little pet of the Wizarding world at Hogwarts – I trained. I have become more powerful than Dumbledore, than Voldemort – even you Harry does not measure up to me!" He laughed maniacally. _

_His golden glow darkened and became green, he had no hair now, it couldn't go blonde..._

_His eyes became red and catlike just like Voldemort. Neville was right about himself – he was a monstrosity._

_Harry sighed – Neville was beyond redemption. No. This wasn't Neville Longbottom, he had died on Morsmodre – this was something else. He had to fight it. _

_  
Harry was suddenly filled with a will to live. He wanted to save people from this thing – save Ginny! And so he fought him._

_He did not fare well, Neville was right when he said he had become more powerful, he was beating Harry with apparent ease._

_Harry was struggling just to keep up. Then Neville hit him. Hard._

_Harry flew back into a building which collapsed under his momentum. Harry lay in the rubble, barely conscious, barely alive._

_Neville flew down. And laughed._

"_The mighty Harry Potter, beaten with ease!" He clicked his fingers, several death eaters scurried forward, "Strip him of his armour, send it to his Mudblood friends at Hogwarts!"_

_He turned back to Harry, "Now Potter...when I send your body back to the Blood traitors and Mudbloods at that school of yours, I want them to see what you have seen today...you took my face, I will take yours."_

_Neville conjured a red hot poker, and teased Harry with it by bringing it closer to his face. Then he summoned the corpse of one of the dead soldiers to him. He touched the poker to the man's face – the skin melted immediately. He continued to disfigure the man's face, smirking as he did so._

"_Hmmm...too cold, much to cold" he thought aloud. The poker became white hot._

"_And now Harry, old friend, I will begin on you! Hmm, I will take an eye first, so you can still see what is happening to you." He brought the poker closer and closer to Harry's face, Harry could feel the intense heat – it began to singe his eyebrows._

_Harry whispered something; "I forgive you Neville."_

_Neville pulled back with the poker for a mere second, something flickered in his eye. Confusion?_

_This bought Harry enough time, seconds even to try and escape. He summoned up every last inch of magic remaining in his body and just thought:_

_**Get me away from here.**__ And it happened- He apparated away._

_End Flashback_

"I landed in a mountain range on the border between England and Scotland. From there I made my way north and the rest, as they say - is history."

Harry had been shaking during his telling of the story, and only Ginny's comforting hand in his stopped this. Many people were crying at points in the story – even Dumbledore shed a tear.

"So...Neville bested you?" stammered James.

"Yes...he has reached a power level above mine" sighed Harry.

"But you can get to that point too can't you?" asked Kingsley, hopefully.

"Yes...I need to train like mad though. From what I have learned from speaking to you earlier, the forces in Hogsmeade are gathering...this is the deep breath before the plunge..."

"I will help you anyway I can, Harry. I understand if you hate me...I have been a terrible father. I doubt I can redeem myself but I would like to try" said James nervously.

"And I shall help too Harry" said Dumbledore. Many people gasped at this – two of the most powerful wizards in the world training with each other would be an awesome spectacle.

"Thank you...I may take you up on the offers!" Harry smiled.

"Now" said Kingsley standing, "Back to the discussion we began last meeting – reinforcements."

"I have spoken with the Centaurs – they will not be involved." Said Dumbledore, sadly.

"That is that then" said Kinsley sadly.

"Hold on...I can get us some reinforcements, it will have to be a last minute thing – I _need _to train first." Said Harry.

"Who?" asked Rufus Scrimgeour, laughing.

Harry stared at him and bluntly answered "Goblins."

After the meeting had ended, and Ginny had gone to get Harry's other friends, Harry was cornered by Kate Bailey.

"Harry..." she began.

"Hi, Kate – how are you?" he smiled.

"Fine...there is something I need to say...I can't be with you anymore...not like after the dance" she said.

"Oh ok, no problem" smiled Harry.

"There is someone else now." She said

"No Worries, Kate...anyone I would know?"

"Charlie Weasley" she smiled.

"Good, he is a good man. Thank you though, it was a wonderful evening – the dance that is. And well, you were my first kiss!" he laughed.

"Thank you, Harry, for being so understanding...though I think I know why..." She said, eyes flicking towards where Ginny had left. "Go get her!"

Harry smiled, and turned to go and find Ginny, but Bailey grabbed his arm and spun him round.

"This is because you were the best kisser I have ever had...this is for me!" She closed the gap between them and kissed him full on the mouth, tongues and all.

She broke off, panting. "Let's go get our Weasley's!"

It was night time, the stars were in the sky. Harry lay on the ground, Ginny by his side.

_I'm going to do it. _He decided.

"Hey Ginny...let's go!" he said standing up.

"What? Where?" she asked, confusedly, getting to her knees.

"Wherever!" he grinned.

"Wha-! Harry!" she squealed as he picked her up, taking flight.

"Where are we going?" she asked as they flew over the turrets of Hogwarts.

"You see that forest over there?" he asked.

"...yes?" she said warily.

"Well we aren't going there!" he laughed.

They flew for about five more minutes, gaining height. Ginny just stared at the stars. Harry finally set them down at the top of a mountain.

He conjured a warm blanket for Ginny who was shivering slightly. He sat down, back against a boulder, Ginny sat next to him, leaning into him.

Harry wrapped his arm round Ginny and then put his other arm around her front connecting with her other arm. They both just stared into the distance.

"Hey Gin...after the dance I felt so guilty...that is why I left on the mission. I didn't ask you because I wanted to protect you, but either way if I had asked you or not, you would still be a target...we all are these days. And then with Bailey in the garden...I saw you leaving with Terry and I don't know what came over me – it was like I had a point to prove..."

"Harry, I wanted you so badly! I thought that by going with Terry would make you notice me...but I didn't realize that-" Ginny was silenced by Harry's lips meeting hers.

She exploded with happiness inside and responded by using her tongue. They continued to kiss on and off for nearly an hour, under the stars.

They stopped and just stared up at the stars. And before Harry knew it Ginny was asleep leaning on him.

_I could get used to this..._he smiled, before picking up a fast asleep Ginny and flying her back to the castle.

He had flown Ginny back to Hogwarts and deposited in her dorm via her window. After he had left her dorm via the window again, he landed amongst a large group of refugee tents.

"WOO HOO!" he yelled to no one in particular.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen – Reaching the Next Level

The next day, Harry still being in a good mood, he began to train. To start off with he fought against more battle-golems than he should have been, all at their highest level. He fought them at his full power, keeping it up for a good fifteen minutes.

Any onlooker would have seen Harry Potter fighting nearly fifty golems. He also began to meditate, trying to access a further power inside of himself. He remembered to when he was able first turn golden, it was in the chamber of secrets...the feeling of there being more power available, but needing to reach out and tap into it.

In the afternoon, his father, Sirius and their group of students whom they were teaching defence to joined him. Harry and James agreed to have a joint training session; the students would practice launching spells, whilst Harry could practice dodging and gain some speed.

The students he was dodging spells from turned out to be the whole of Gryffindor. Harry was not allowed to use magic to block any spells or retaliate. He was about to begin when he saw Ginny in an argument with Sirius.

"I refuse to throw spells at my boyfriend! I could hurt him!" she said.

"But...you need to practice and so does he..." replied an intimidated looking Sirius

"NO! He has just come out of the hospital wing, he is not going back in" warned Ginny.

Harry decided to intervene; "Hey Ginny, if you do throw spells at me, I will give you a surprise when training is over...like we had on the mountain last night" he said winking.

"Harry you will give that to me anyway" she warned him this time, "But I refuse to hit you with some of the spells we have been learning."

Harry thought of something that would work; "Oh well, you probably couldn't hit me any way..." he sighed walking away.

"What? I think not Potter!" she said fingering her wand, then throwing a hex at him, which he dodged.

Harry laughed, "See? Come on, if you hit me, you will get me alone for a whole hour tonight!"

"I will hit you not because of that, but because of what you said about me not being able to hit you!" she shouted, angrily.

Sirius shook his head in disbelief, before shouting; "Ok everyone – GO!"

Harry powered up and began to dodge the 150 or so spells that flew at him, he flipped backwards and forwards, dove left and right, began spinning and twisting. Unfortunately the others were fairly well trained, the spells were coming quicker and more accurate.

Harry sped up. Finally he got to the point where he felt as though he had moved closer to unlocking his potential.

He signalled to James and Sirius, who called a halt to the firing. He was about to walk back over to the group, when a cutting curse whizzed past his face, courtesy of Violet Potter.

He was about to yell at her, when someone else did.

"Violet! What the hell do you think you are doing?" came the voice of James Potter.

Violet looked shocked, nobody shouted at her. "I didn't mean it, Daddy..." she simpered.

"Rubbish...you...you're grounded." He said firmly, as if battling against his conscience.

"You can't do that to me! I am Violet Potter, I am-"

"And I am James Potter, your father, and you just risked injuring another person severely – don't you know what a cutting curse to the neck could do?" He said, angrily.

"But...but..." she whispered, confused.

"But nothing, Violet. You are grounded for two weeks. Got it?" he said firmly.

The students, Harry and Sirius watched this confrontation with awe. Violet Potter always got away with things, and for the first person to punish her to be her father, was...well what could you compare it to?

Harry nodded in thanks to his father, he was still somewhat angry that his dad tried to crawl back to him only after he had nearly lost his life.

He walked over to Ginny who hugged him. He smiled,

"Never did hit me did you?"

"Oh really?" she said, coming out of the hug, wand in her hand.

Harry groaned and felt for the back of his head, to where he felt a pony tail. He burst out laughing,

"Oh well Ginny, looks like I'm yours for tonight..."

"Damn right you are, Potter."

______________________________________________________________________________

Harry's days and evening continued in a similar fashion; Morning - lone work, Afternoon – Training the students while training himself and Evenings were spent with Ginny, and occasionally his other friends. You may think that this routine was fairly relaxed and everyone in Hogwarts was relaxed too, however you would be wrong.

Ever-present was the threat of being attacked, and if they lost the battle that would almost certainly follow, that was it – war over, war lost.

The great hall obviously couldn't fit everyone at one time so Hogwarts had expanded it – big time. It could now fit everyone staying at Hogwarts at one time.

It was during lunch, two weeks after Harry's awakening that something _big _happened.

Everybody was sitting down eating lunch, simple sandwiches and soup (the house-elves were working like..._house elves!_). Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas suddenly burst through the doors – Dean shouted;

"Dumbledore's fighting Harry!" he grinned.

Everyone in the hall was silent for a second. Then there was a huge rammy for the doors; everyone wanted to see this.

Someone asked where they were all going, Seamus replied "The Quidditch Pitch!"

As the last few people entered the grandstands (and many stood pitchside), Dumbledore and Harry were in full swing.

Currently Harry was defending from thirteen conjured lions. Harry could have taken them out by powering up, however one of the rules of the match was magic only. Harry transfigured six of the lions into wolves, and with the influence of his magic, he sent them back at Dumbledore.

Harry then turned the rest of the lions against Dumbledore, in response to which Dumbledore did the same; but Harry had the advantage; Dumbledore had conjured too many lions, and had taken out too many wolves – it was now four lions under Harry's control against two wolves under Dumbledore's control.

In order to combat Harry's advantage Dumbledore took on two of Harry's lions himself. This let Harry concentrate on taking out Dumbledore; he sent a body bind curse. It hit, but Dumbledore had some tricks up his sleeve. He managed to shut off the curse so it was only his left arm and leg affected.

He cast a powerful shield; it kept things out, but things could still leave it. He then threw spell after spell at Harry, who responded by trying to crack Dumbledore's shield, similarly throwing spells. Their arms seemed like blurs and the speed the spells travelled at was amazing; it was a pillar of light.

Finally Dumbledore's shield crumbled and he was hit with a barrage of spells; or at least it seemed so.

Harry spun around to where Dumbledore was behind him; he had conjured a duplicate model and disillusioned himself...._crafty old man _chuckled Harry to himself.

Harry then threw an exploding hex at the ground, showering dirt into the air, making him disappear from sight. When the dirt settled Harry stood with an unconscious Dumbledore.

He had transfigured some of the bigger stones into duplicates of _his _body so that Dumbledore turned around to shoot spells at them, as a result he was hit in the back with a stunner.

The crowd cheered, which shocked Harry – he was so focused on the battle that he didn't notice that people were watching. He revived Dumbledore, who shook his hand and smiled.

"Well done Harry, well done"

"No problem Professor, you could beat me, if only you let me teach you how to power up! I know that Voldemort will do..."

"As I have said already Harry, I am too old for that..." he chuckled.

"Ok, Professor, I obviously can't change your mind" Harry relented.

He began walking out of the stadium, meeting an angry redhead in the tunnel.

"What is the big idea scaring me like that! Your for it now..." she said, angrily.

"Sorry Gin..." he said sheepishly. Ginny just sighed and grabbed his hand, marching off with him in tow.

"Because of this scare, you are mine for the rest of the day!" she lectured him.

"Yes Gin..." he sighed, yet smiling.

A week following the fight, Harry felt he was nearly there. He had the same feeling he had in the chamber, like he was on the verge of a huge amount of power. He had been training all day, and he was so close that he decided not to go in for the evening...he would even risk Ginny's wrath to get to the next level.

He was currently fighting seventy battle-golems and was showing signs of fatigue. It was nearly eleven at night, he was completely alone in the forbidden forest. He was in the air and slowly, slowly falling.

Harry landed on the ground, to his surprise, then finally there was that rare feeling of dying of thirst in front of a dam. The golems descended upon Harry, completely covering him. Then it happened.

Dumbledore was looking out his office window, sucking upon a lemon drop. He was pondering the battle that would soon come. He was also thinking about new sweets to put as his password. _Pear Drops..._

His thoughts were interrupted by a bright explosion coming from the forbidden forest, followed by many trees and a LOT of battle golems being blasted away.

"Ah, Harry has succeeded." He smiled to himself "Perhaps we shall succeed after all...ah sour skittles!"

Back in the forest Harry was now glowing purple, his hair was black with red streaks in it and his eyes were an intense green. The power he felt flowing through him was incomprehensible, he felt as if he could take on Voldemort's entire army an win!

The burst of power had levelled the trees closest to him and taken out all of the battle golems. He tested out the new power by blasting down some more trees, they didn't stand a chance.

He grinned, as he turned back to normal, then back up again –just to test it... and it worked.

His joy was short-lived as he realized that it was about half-past eleven in the evening and he usually met Ginny at six pm...he was for it.

"Harry – any news on 'the next level'?" asked Kingsley, at the next meeting.

"Yep – I am there, accomplished it not too long ago" he grinned.

There were cheers around the table – their best warrior was on par with the other side's.

"Excellent! Now, back to business I am afraid...these goblins you said you could get us, we need them."

Harry sighed. "Ok...but in order to do that, I will have to leave Hogwarts for a while...and if they attack you will have to manage without me for a bit."

"That is a risk we will take, we need reinforcements" answered Kingsley.

"Ok, I am not promising anything, in fact it is highly probable that the goblins will throw me out, but I will be back within two days. What is the drill in case of an attack?"

"Well, the wards will hold them off for at least three hours, in which time we will evacuate everyone into the castle. All fighters will report to stations they have already been allocated. It will be a siege from there – they may break in, they may not." Replied Kingsley.

"Right, sounds good. And if they break in?" he asked.

"We seal off the castle level by level, and evacuate" he said.

Harry looked straight at Kinsley, raising his eyebrows. Kingsley just warned Harry by shaking his head; Harry knew that you couldn't apparate of Hogwarts, Portkey wards would have been set up and the floo network was down.

"Ok. Well I will be leaving to speak to the goblins tonight, sir" he said to Kingsley.

The meeting adjourned, and Harry made his way up to his dorm in Gryffindor tower in order to gather what he would need for his mission.

In the common room he found Ginny sitting in an arm-chair by the fire, he sat on one of the arms.

"Hey" he said, she turned around and smiled at him.

"Hey to you", she pulled him down so that they were both snuggled together in the large armchair. They began to kiss, then Ginny spoke up.

"Now that you have stopped training so hard, I hope I am going to be getting a lot more of this."

Harry's smile faltered for a second – this was not lost to Ginny's keen eyes.

"What?" she said, suspiciously.

"I'm leaving Hogwarts for a couple of days..." he said, not looking at her face.

"What!" she said, angrily.

"I am going to try and get us some reinforcements from the goblins, I will be back though! And when I am, you can have me for an entire, day –all to yourself.

Ginny thought to herself for a moment; "Make that a weekend, and you have a deal, Potter."

"Deal" he said leaning in to kiss her. "I will just get ready then come down to say goodbye."

He went up the stairs and changed into the all too familiar clothes of a black vest, black skinny jeans and pointed boots. He put on a black military style jacket and then strapped his sword to his back, then his knives to his forearms and finally his wand.

He walked back down the stairs where Ginny was waiting for him.

"Why the fighting gear, Harry?" she asked worriedly.

"In case when I get back there is trouble, but I am sure there won't be" he said half lying.

"Be careful, ok, if you come back and there is one _scratch _upon you, there will be hell to pay!"

"It'll be fine...just look forward to the weekend, where you can do anything you want with me! Take it as a promise, and to seal it – take this." He took of his grandfather's watch and handed it to her, clasping it in her hand.

"I like the sound of the weekend...but Harry this is your most prized possession, I can't care of it!"

"Of course you can, Gin, I trust you with my life. Keep this safe and as long as it keeps ticking I love you!"

She leant into kiss him and they embraced for a few moments before Harry left.

He just hoped everything would be ok when he got back....


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen – It Begins

Harry left soon after saying his goodbyes, flying south, avoiding Hogsmeade.

The small group who waved him off, Ginny, his parents along with Kingsley and his deputy ministers Mad Eye Moody and Arthur Weasley.

Ginny sighed as he flew out of sight, and walked inside. _He'll be back _she reassured herself.

Lord Voldemort stood in his chamber waiting for the report of the spies positioned outside of the Hogwarts grounds. He had positioned them there in order to gain information on the enemy and to see if there were any weaknesses in the wards.

"My Lord." Said a Death Eater, bowing in front of him.

"Any information?" he asked.

"My Lord, someone flew from the grounds, not twenty minutes ago...I believe it to be Potter" reported Jugson.

"Very good, you are dismissed." He replied, smiling.

"Captain Longbottom!" he snapped, Neville sauntering into his view from behind Voldemort's throne.

"Master?" he asked.

"Potter, has left Hogwarts...this is it. Mobilize the army, we attack at dawn."

"Excellent, my Lord" grinned Neville.

Harry arrived at the international Goblin Headquarters at about . The headquarters were situated in a mountain temple; it looked like Gringotts upon a mountaintop. He was stopped by the two guards who had spears.

"Halt Wizard! What is your business?"

"I wish an audience with Graspscrew the Wealthy and his council, my need is great." Replied Harry.

"And why would the Wealthy Graspscrew want to meet a wizard like yourself?" sneered one of the guards.

"I come with a gift," Harry replied, flicking his wrists so that his knives were in his hands, "Authentic goblin craft from before the second great Goblin war."

"Where did you get them! They are priceless!" gasped one of the guards, before snapping to the other, "Show the Wizard in, he will meet Graspscrew."

______________________________________________________________________________

"Master...the army is ready, we await your arrival to begin the assault" said Neville, on one knee.

"Excellent, let us begin the assault." He smirked.

He and Neville walked out of the temporary death eater base, where there were two gigantic dog-like beasts awaiting. They each mounted one and rode out of the castle.

Voldemort struggled to contain his glee as he set his eyes upon his dark army. In front of him stood ten-thousand death eaters, werewolves and vampires (protected from the sun). They cheered as their leaders came outside.

"Today my servants," called Voldemort "We take this world! We rule over the weak fools! To Hogwarts and victory!"

There was another huge cheer and several hundred dark marks were shot into the sky, which was thick with smoke and eerie dark clouds, despite the fact it was dawn. The rabble began marching to Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office, reading over some battle plans and enjoying the sunrise. However sunrise was not so spectacular that morning, he soon found out why as his many instruments began to wail, telling him that there was something attacking the wards.

He sighed, "It begins...hurry back Harry." He then stood up and started the sirens, which had been the sound of so many drills before, but this time it was not so.

James Potter hurried past Bill Weasley and several other ward experts who were sealing off the gigantic doors into the castle, warding them over and over. He was headed for the castle ramparts.

He stepped out of a previously unused and un-needed door into the air, thick with tension and fear. There were volleys upon volleys of various curses and hexes hitting the walls and wards of Hogwarts. In front of the wrought iron gate into the grounds the death eater elites sent blasting hexes and exploding curses crashing into it. Hogwarts was under siege, and they could do nothing to engage the enemy until they came into the grounds.

Around his stood the remnants of auror forces and order of the phoenix – the first line of defence. In higher parts of the castle and higher ramparts were all the volunteer fighters which made up the bulk of the fighting force, and Hogwarts students deemed skilled and old enough to fight. When they broke in (it was a case of when, not if) they would take out as many as they could and hopefully they wouldn't get in the castle or break down the Castle wards.

Hopefully.

Ginny stood nervously alongside Hermione, Colin, Ron, Seamus and Dean. They were in a high rampart running parallel to Hufflepuff Halls. They could hear the sound of the dark army outside the wards, it was pretty frightening.

"Oh Merlin...we are for it...there are too many!" groaned Ron.

"Don't worry Ron, we have Dumbledore" said Hermione, as Ginny wandered away – she didn't want to hear Ron's negative thoughts, she was petrified.

"Yeah, we have him – but where is Harry! He knows we can't win, he has abandoned us! I saw him flying away yesterday!" he gushed.

"What...?" said Hermione, fearfully. Colin also looked up, wide eyed.

"He isn't here...better not mention it to Ginny she will get upset. That no good wimp..." grumbled Colin. They didn't realize that Harry was in charge of getting reinforcements, and that Ginny knew it.

"And why Potter, should we give you some of our warriors, in return for just two daggers?" interrogated Graspscrew.

"Because," smirked Harry, "If you do, I have more pre-War goblin artefacts you can have. Including Pinchnail the fair's tiara!"

"What! Why that was lost in the battle of Wallsern Market over 400 years ago!"

"Stolen by my ancestor...sorry" apologized Harry.

"How many warriors do you need?" asked Graspscrew.

"How many can you give me?" grinned Harry.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dumbledore walked up to the higher battlements, he needed to speak with Violet Potter. If this really was the final battle, then it was her time to shine, to fulfil the prophecy. He remembered it, those fateful words circulating his mind;

_**The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches,**_

_**Born as the seventh month dies**_

_**Born to those who have thrice defied him**_

_**And the one shall rise above two who know more**_

_**Evil, thrice the parents have defied.**_

_**There will come a day the one shall be marked**_

_**They will have skills unequaled by all**_

_**And can make the Dark Lord Fall**_

He only hoped he had been right in his judgement and that Violet could do it. He reached the post of the sixth years where he saw Violet – what he saw shook his very bones.

Violet Potter was pushing Hermione Granger about, laughing.

"You know what Granger? Maybe the invasion here won't be so bad, Mudbloods like you finally getting put in their place!" she giggled.

"I can imagine it now, they hate your kind, they will probably torture you and then kill you slowly so you can feel every ounce of pain! Maybe if you are lucky they might keep you around to play with, be their slave" she was cackling now.

"Of course they will spare me, after all I am Violet Potter, singer star and the chosen one!" she was laughing her head off.

_Merlin this girl is incredibly disillusioned...she is nearly mad...that evil little girl..._

Then, with the words of the prophecy still echoing in his mind things clicked; it wasn't

_**And the one shall rise above two who know more**_

_**Evil, thrice the parents have defied.**_

It was:

_**And the one shall rise above two who know more e**__**vil,**_

_**thrice the parents have defied.**_

Harry was the prophesized one – Voldemort had marked him at Diagon Alley! Neville had joined Voldemort...he was evil, and Violet was an arrogant bully, inviting evil into her soul! They knew more evil that Harry...

He had thought that he shouldn't train Violet specially that she _needed _to know less...though there was a fine line between knowing less than her brother and knowing _nothing._

Then he realized; despite his misinterpretation of the prophecy he had prepared for the battle perfectly – Harry was even more powerful than him, and if anyone could defeat Tom, it was him.

Then a thought panicked him, just as the death eaters finally broke down the wards,

_If Harry is fighting Voldemort, who will take care of Neville?_

Neville oversaw the blasting of Hogwarts walls, he even threw in a couple of powerful exploding curses, which helped considerably.

Nearly eight thousand (excluding elites and wandless vampires and werewolves) spells were hitting the wards every couple of seconds, but they would not buckle. He looked over to his master where he was overseeing the elites attempt on the gates – they were not faring much better.

"Come on you scum-bags! Are you trying to tell me that you can't pass some muggle loving shields! Get on with the job" he shouted angrily. Everyone began to work twice as hard – there were few who didn't feat Captain Longbottom, partly thanks to his face, he went unmasked now as his true identity was known.

He sent a series of five curses at the wall to help with the break in, and _finally _the wards collapsed, leaving only stone in his way.

"STOP!" he shouted. There was one death eater who didn't stop in time, Neville killed him swiftly. He then sent a huge reducto at the wall, opening up a large gap. He looked over to his Lord, who nodded at him to begin the siege on the castle.

"Everyone inside – shields up, they _will _be trying to take us out. Do nothing except defend yourself until we have fully re-organised or you will end up like the spell happy fool over here" he said, kicking the corpse of the death eater he had killed.

James Potter saw the enemy start flooding in then lining up. _They are well organised _he noted, _not good._

He received the order from Moody to send out some test spells, so they could see how defensively well organised they were. Everyone sent out various spells, which hit the enemies shield. The fact they were standing in ranks made it like one giant shield covering the entire force.

James swore, and continued to look on in horror as the death eaters poured in, almost non-stop. Moody then called out "Fire at the gap in the wall!"

They did so and managed to take out the first of the death eaters, and slowed them down with the pile up of bodies. However soon after this happened, the gates burst open and Voldemort and his elites strode in.

They had the advantage of fear, many too afraid to attempt to take them out.

He then saw something amazing; one of the iron gates that had been blown off its hinges flew in the air and cut its way through the death eater ranks, taking out nearly two hundred of them. He looked around to see who did it, to see the grinning face of his wife, Lily.

"I am suddenly reminded of why I married you." He grinned, kissing his wife on the lips.

"Because no one else would have you Potter!" she responded cheekily, before joining everyone else in firing at the death eaters who were now vulnerable from the collapse of a chunk of their shield. They soon got formed up again and became the impenetrable force they had been, with leaders on the field, Lily's trick wouldn't work twice.

Colin Creevy watched the death eaters form back up with disdain, barely a fraction of their force had been taken out. When the last few remnants of the army had come through the holes in the walls and formed up, it was nearly , a long time after the attack had begun. The wards had held them up for a long time and it took a long period to get ten thousand people into the grounds from outside, via only two smallish entrances.

He stood close to Ginny, who was looking extremely frightened and tried to comfort her, even though he was just as afraid as she was. Then the death eater assault began.

They started marching forward, shooting various spells at the castle, all of which reflected off the wards. They heard the orders to start firing back – so they did. The majority of their spells didn't succeed, but every few took a man down.

Lily, Professor Flitwick and McGonagall were concentrating on levitating large chunks of the destroyed wall over the death eaters. The two professor's rocks hit their target, in total taking out around one hundred enemy, but Lily's was stopped before it hit the ground and flung into the wards, making gravel of the once large boulder.

The front line of death eaters arrived at the walls, and began to try and take down the wards – they were the curse breakers Voldemort had managed to recruit from over the world. They were currently untouchable, as they each had three other death eaters assigned to protect them while they worked their magic.

Colin looked along the wall to where he saw Fred and George Weasley throwing some gadgets over the wall; their newest invention stun-grenades. Based on the muggle weapon, these grenades released around thirty stunners when thrown. They were also throwing portable swamps at the areas where the death eaters weren't at so they couldn't exploit it.

______________________________________________________________________

The battle raged on for many more hours, and by the time it was getting dark, the wards were extremely weak. James Potter finally received the nod from Moody, it was time to leave the battlements and prepare for the Death Eaters pouring into the castle.

Everyone charged downstairs from the battlements to the entrance hall, ready for the inevitable break in. The entire auror and order force stood in a large group ready to take on the evil coming through the narrow space (narrow for ten thousand people), that was the great double doors.

James felt the magic that he had always taken for granted surrounding him, collapse – the wards had fallen. Harry hadn't arrived in time...the double doors burst open and death eaters started pouring in as the group began taking them out.

______________________________________________________________________________

Ginny heard Percy shouting along the lines to Oliver Wood, the two in charge of her post in the castle.

"The Castle has been breached, we are shutting of all entrances to the upper floors!"

The students groaned at this, many were crying and screaming, there was no hope now. There were thousands waiting outside the castle, queuing to come in, they would make short work of the seals on the doors to the upper level.

She didn't notice in her panic that the screaming had stopped, and that many students were pointing to the hill next to the grounds. She looked up at it – _HARRY!_

Harry Potter stood alone on top of the hill, surveying the battle. _Alone, damn...he didn't get any reinforcement..._her elation at his arrival was short lived. _Even Harry can't take out Voldemort, Neville and ten thousand others alone..._she thought.

Then her elation came back – he was not alone. Three thousand goblins appeared over the hill, behind Harry.

Three thousand goblin warriors, armed to the teeth.


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen – What Shall We Die For?

Harry and the squadron of three thousand goblins took their portkeys to just outside Hogwarts grounds. Harry sprinted up a hill he knew overlooked Hogwarts and would give him a good view – he seriously hoped that there was no battle.

He was sorely disappointed. What he saw when he reached the top of the hill was a sea of black robes, thousands of dark marks and volleys upon volleys of spells hitting the wards of the castle. The dark army looked to be on the verge of breaking through into Hogwarts, where there were many of those on the light side defending the castle from the ramparts.

He formed a plan of action in his mind. He had the landscape advantage, they could charge down the hill at the death eaters. He had the advantage of surprise on his side. The death eaters had magic on their side, the goblins were only using weapons. However their armour was heavily shielded and protected. Harry had on armour as well, the goblins had given it to him, and Harry wore it on his arms only.

A full on charge. That was the best method to use. The goblin army arrived behind him, and looked shocked although somewhat pleased at the sight of the enemy in front of them. The general of the force walked forward.

"Well then Captain, you have provided the enemy, what would you have us do" he toothily grinned – if there was one thing goblin warriors loved and were good at, it was fighting wizards.

"Full on assault, down this hill, we need to stop anymore from entering the castle, General Ragknuckle." Answered Harry.

"Very good, just you give us the signal, Captain" he replied, fingering his axe.

Harry thought for a second..._it is my duty to get Neville. But I need to help Violet by weakening Voldemort first...she will be obliterated if I don't. _Harry did not want his sister hurt, despite all the abuse he had taken because of her and from her.

He pulled his sword from its scabbard and raised it in the air, signalling the charge to begin. He then sprinted down the hill ready for whatever may come his way.

Ginny watched in elation, along with everyone else, as Harry led the Goblins in a charge aimed to decimate down the hill beside the grounds. The death eaters hadn't seemed to have noticed this new enemy until it was too late. The army hit them at full force, and kept going, ploughing through the death eaters.

There were cheers from those around her, the battle was turning in their favour. Then the goblins stopped and started to get hit too. Voldemort and Neville had entered the fray.

______________________________________________________________________________

Harry charged through the forces, cutting down death eaters left right and centre – they would not get up. He glanced up at the castle _I'm here now Gin._

He looked back to the battle and to his horror the goblins had started falling, the charge was losing momentum.

Harry was then assaulted from behind.

In the entrance Hall, James Potter and Albus Dumbledore were wondering why the influx of death eaters had so suddenly come to a halt.

"Goblins!" shouted a messenger from up by the battlements.

"Harry is here!" grinned James.

"Excellent!" smiled Dumbledore, "I say we go out and help, that way we can put up some more wards on the castle doors."

Kingsley agreed with him, and so he ordered the force to charge out of the doors, whilst Bill Weasley and his team re-set the wards.

They exited at the wrong time, as the Goblins were being taken down. However many death eaters had their backs to the force, trying to fight off the goblins, so they set upon them taking man after man down.

A huge blasting hex hit their force suddenly and blew around twenty men away, who slammed into the castle walls, unconscious or worse...

That could have only come from one of two people: Voldemort or Neville.

Whoever it was Dumbledore engaged.

Harry was knocked over, and looked uo to see none-other than Bellatrix Lestrange, who had been hugging him tightly.

"Harry, my love, we are finally reunited!" she shouted.

Harry was in shock...she was insane! She jumped upon him and continued to assault him, with her lips.

Harry rolled over, so he could pin her beneath him, and he saw a twinkle in her eye as she was under him.

"Such power..."she whispered.

Harry did not have the heart to kill her, so he sighed and sent a stunning spell at her, letting go of her unconscious body. He got up in time to hear a voice growl;

"Potter..."

Albus Dumbledore fought his former pupil, Tom Riddle with vigour. Currently they were embroiled in a battle of transfiguration; One of the winged boars from the castle grounds was attacking Voldemort's conjured snake.

While they fought Voldemort sent a fiery whip at Dumbledore, whom it wrapped around before dissipating, with some advanced magic.

Dumbledore's boar took out Voldemort's snake, much to his anger.

"Dumbledore, you old fool, surrender the school and maybe I will not kill _all _of your students!" he spat.

"Tom, the stage where negotiations and deals could be made, passed long ago..."

"My name is Lord Voldemort" he screamed.

In response to Dumbledore's 'blasphemy' he began to send barrages of spells at Dumbledore. He finally sent one exploding hex at his ex-teacher, which missed by a mile.

"Tom, you must stop, you are weak! That came nowhere close to me." Taunted Dumbledore, knowing that he would be at an advantage if Tom became angry.

He was worried when Voldemort responded with a smirk.

"I beg to differ, it has in fact hit its target!"

Dumbledore wheeled around in time to see the spell hitting one of the walls where the students were standing, the wall exploded and many of the students fell, only being saved by Dumbledore levitating them to the ground. Voldemort took advantage of this and cast the cruciatus curse at his back.

Dumbledore collapsed on the ground and began screaming. Voldemort laughed hysterically as he continued to torture the old headmaster. Finally he lifted his curse.

"Now, old man watch as I torture you precious students...who first – ah the readhead! A Weasley, I presume."

He pointed his wand at Ginny Weasley and cast a powerful fire spell. The inferno flew towards her, however it was intercepted by an adrenaline charged Albus Dumbledore, who dove in front of it. The result of this was he flew back into the walls of his school, going unconscious and extremely badly burned.

Voldemort was about to continue his assault when there were two huge blasts of power from the middle of the battle-field which he obviously knew what they were, and so made his way over to the source of the blasts.

"Potter..."

Harry spun around, in front of him stood the former Neville Longbottom.

"Neville." Harry nodded, sheathing his sword, preparing to get in a combat position.

"I am shocked you do not run before me, after I nearly killed you at Diagon Alley...you should fear my superior power!"

"Your power is equal to mine, if not eclipsed." Retorted Harry, if he was angry he may lose concentration; no such luck.

"You amuse me Potter, I am not affected by your taunting. As you once told me – rise above it!"he chuckled.

"Good advice." Countered Harry.

"Enough of this Potter, let me now destroy you!" said Neville. He powered up green and eyes red, the power blasting outwards. He laughed; "You are weak Potter, weak!"

"If I am weak, then you are also" he responded before powering up purple, red streaks and green, green eyes and a similar power blast.

Neville looked somewhat shocked at Harry's power, but quickly regained his composure. The two were about to fight when Voldemort arrived at their battle area.

"Hold on Captain Longbottom!" he snapped.

"Master." He acquiesced.

"Now Potter, where is your sister? Should she not be here fighting me instead of you...the prophesized one?"

"It only says she needs to dispose of you, it doesn't say that I can't make it easy for her." He snapped back.

"Well, that won't happen Potter." He chuckled, and then powered up golden.

"How sad, when your second in command is more powerful than you, as am I."

"Well, how sad it shall be for you when I kill you despite this, but know you have been a worthy adversary, you could have joined me...you chose not to, you chose to hide in Hogwarts like a coward, being afraid."

"Being brave is not about not being afraid, it is about being afraid and going ahead anyway...but know this I am NOT afraid of you."

"Then perhaps you will fear the both of us!" he shouted, signalling to Neville to start attacking.

They flew at him sending various hexes and punches as they did so. Harry blocked most of them, but it was difficult with two of them against one of him.

They continued to fight, with Harry not being able to go on the offensive, just remaining defensive. Below them, on the ground, the battle had actually stopped so people could marvel at the spectacle of the battle above them.

Harry needed a plan, and he groaned to himself as he remembered that he could not kill Voldemort due to the prophecy and he knew there was no way he could bring himself to killing Neville.

After Voldemort had left the scene, Ginny ran over to Professor Dumbledore. He looked weak and badly injured – trying to save her.

"Professor! Are you ok?" she asked, desperately.

"I will survive," he croaked, "Listen to me Ginny, you must find Harry and tell him that he is the one, not Violet – you _need _to tell him!"

"Ok, but will you be ok, Professor?" she asked worriedly.

"I will survive this battle" he smiled, but that turned into a serious face, "If you tell, Harry."

"Ok Professor, I will – I promise!" She said as she left him, to try and find Harry.

How could she do it? She looked down to Harry's watch on her wrist and thought.

Harry continued on with the escalating battle, always on the defensive. He was trying to form a plan in his mind, but nothing came.

Even though Neville and Voldemort were in front of him, a spell came past his shoulder – a patronus? It took the form of a Lioness, then it spoke;

_Harry,_

_Dumbledore says that you are the one, not Violet. I love you – Ginny._

Harry blinked in shock, nearly being hit by a few of Voldemort and Neville's spells. His thoughts changed from trying to form a plan to thinking about the information he had just learned.

_I am the one? The prophesized one! Why did Ginny tell me this? That must mean Dumbledore is unable to...I hope he is ok. This battle has just gone up a notch, I am going to have to take Neville out if I want to focus on Voldemort, and Dumbledore is unable to help..._

Harry sent a blast, as powerful as he could at Voldemort, hoping to take him out for at least a few minutes. He was lucky in that it took Voldemort by surprise and knocked him out the sky, he was injured – but not badly.

Harry now turned his attentions to Neville. _I need to use his weakness against him to win...and I know his weakness, he doesn't think before he acts, just like in the chamber. I need to get a trap._

He began to fight Neville at such a speed, no one could see their movements. In actual fact they were mixing sword play, martial arts and spells into one ruthless fight. They were flying high, in the darkness of the night.

They each hit each other with various spells and punches. Harry meanwhile had come up with a plan. It involved a big risk – he was going to try and apparate on the grounds, but hopefully that would work due to the collapse of the wards. He flew above Neville and threw feindfyre at him, which he dodged, but the fire continued on towards the ground, causing a huge inferno to blaze on the ground.

He then engaged Neville in close quarter combat, going higher and higher until they were covered by the clouds. It was time to put the plan into action.

Ginny watched Harry and Neville's battle with a morbid fascination. Then they disappeared into the clouds. Would one of them fall?

Her question was soon answered by the falling, no longer glowing body of Harry Potter.

"NO! HARRY!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. She tried to run into the still raging battle between Aurors and Goblins and the death eaters, but some arms held her back. It was James Potter, also looking as if he was about to burst into tears.

The body was plummeting straight towards the inferno of fiendfyre! Neville emerged from the clouds seconds later, flying dangerously fast towards Harry, his broadsword extended – he wanted to finish Harry off himself.

Ginny couldn't watch as Neville reached Harry, who was inches away from the fiendfyre.

James shouted, she knew the worst had happened, her Harry was dead!

Then James began to laugh! She opened her eyes to see Harry floating above the fiendfyre – Neville nowhere in sight.

"What...What happened?" she sniffed.

"He apparated! Perfectly timed, just before he reached the flames and was impaled, he apparated above the fire, and Neville went flying into the inferno! He couldn't stopped" he laughed.

Ginny cried, this time with happiness. It was short-lived, Voldemort was back and ready to battle, the tired Harry.

"No..." she groaned "He still has to take out You-Know-Who..."

"But, that is...that is Violet's job" said James confusedly, "She is the chosen one..."

"Dumbledore told me to tell Harry that he was wrong, that Harry was the one, not Violet. What do they mean, the one?" she asked, equally confused.

James explained the prophecy to Ginny, both remaining confused.

Harry sighed and felt sad as he saw his oldest friend, plunge into the unstoppable scarlet fire that was fiendfyre. He was so obsessed with killing Harry that he was unable to see a trap. Harry wished that Neville had never turned evil...he had loved him like a brother. He was the person Harry was closest to and knew best...

Harry sensed a surge of power from behind him and only just dodged the avada kedavra that had been sent his way, courtesy of Voldemort, who had recovered. Harry turned to face him.

"Look below us Voldemort! We are defeating your forces, you have lost this fight - this war! Your most powerful servant, more powerful than you has been defeated! It is time you surrendered." Harry shouted.

"No Potter...I do not need forces...nor servants! I do not need Longbottom – I do not need anyone! I am Lord Voldemort! I am all powerful!" He shouted back, a mad look in his cat-like eyes.

_He is insane...more insane than Bella...._

Voldemort then attacked Harry, throwing spell after spell, killing curse after killing curse, he was angry...this was good. Harry dodged and reflected the spells, the anger of Voldemort was clearly affecting his battle performance.

Then he stopped. And laughed. "I need no-one, Potter and that is what makes me strong! You rely on others...why that red-head, who sent you the message...you need her don't you! Like you needed Neville...and you killed him! What is to stop you from killing the red-head?"

"Voldemort...I did not kill Neville, he died on Morsmodre when you poisoned him with your lies. I killed the monstrosity you created from his dark side, his desire for power. What stops me from killing Ginny? Love, Tom, love." Said Harry, as if explaining something to a young child.

"Love!" cackled Voldemort, "Love is a weakness, an emotion which is weakness!"

"If that is what you think, you are wrong. If I kill you, that would be it. No one else would follow you...no one would miss you. Those that do try to kill me for killing you do it for power. You kill me and those I love come after you because they love me...it is a power you do not know..."

Voldemort looked panicked for a moment then began attacking Harry who held out his purple glowing hand and absorbed all the spells sent at him; including the killing curses.

"The truth is Tom, no one ever loved you...except perhaps your mother, though you treated her sacrifice for you as her abandoning you. Now that you are about to die, know that you leave this world unloved and hated. I do not hate you...I pity you. What you could have been...hate is an emotion of darkness, it overtook you just like love stopped me from joining you. Goodbye Tom Marvolo Riddle." Harry said.

He then flicked his hand at Voldemort and all of the spells he had absorbed were released in one ultimate finishing spell, which hit him dead on in the chest.

He began to scream as the spell ate away at him, his face being the last to disappear, the emotion on it pure fear. Lord Voldemort was dead.

Harry looked up and saw the thousand few remaining dark forces fleeing the castle into the forest, where no doubt they would be taken care of by the various creatures that inhabited it. He looked up to the castle where people were cheering, the war was won; they were cheering for him!

He slowly lowered himself out the sky, now feeling the pain from his various battles. He landed and his aura faded, a sure sign of his loss of energy. He limed over to the castle across the battlefield, where the surviving soldiers cheered for him and patted him on the back.

He reached the castle steps where he saw an unconscious and badly burned Dumbledore being levitated into the castle, but he was still alive.

He looked about the front of the castle and saw the sight he wanted to see; Ginny Weasley sprinting at full pelt towards him. She leapt into his arms, tears pouring from her eyes. He stood and hugged her for what seemed like hours, in fact only about five minutes.

She sniffed; "What was one of the last things I said, come back with a scratch upon you..."

Harry laughed, which hurt his aching ribs; "Sorry, Gin...but remember I am yours for this weekend."

"Your mine for longer than that, Potter" she grinned, kissing him on the lips.

Harry grabbed onto Ginny's hand and limped inside with her.

Inside to a normal life. He was a weapon. To destroy evil, then Voldemort. He had done that and now he was nobodies but Ginny's.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty – A Brother Divided

The following day after his injuries had been healed, Harry took a walk down to the battlefield. He arrived at a heavily burnt area and saw a mutilated corpse. He picked it up and walked out of Hogwarts gates with it, apparating away after he had left.

He arrived in a forest, where he set the body down, conjured a spade and began to dig. He dug for two hours, finally completing the grave. He climbed out and picked up the body, carefully placing it in the grave. He then filled in the grave again and kneeled down in front of it.

The grave was in front of a large tree..._Neville always liked plant life _he thought sadly. In to that tree he carved a few simple words.

_Neville Longbottom_

_A Brother Divided_

_RIP_

He then stood up, clearing away the tears that had been falling from his eyes. He surveyed the area, which he had chosen specifically. It was the clearing where he and Neville had been taken for their 'Camping Trip' when they were six. It was where they had become friends, where the team was born. It was where a part of Harry died now.

"Goodbye Nev, I love you man." He whispered, turning then apparating away.

He arrived back at Hogwarts and began to help with the clean up; all the Goblin corpses were being prepared to be taken back to the mountain headquarters by the remaining Goblins. The light wizards were being put in body bags, ready to go where the family wanted them. The death eaters, vampires and werewolves were being port keyed where Harry did not know, and did not want to know.

Professor Sprout was regenerating the damage to the grounds, whilst Professor McGonagall and Lily Potter transfigured and conjured replacement stones to go in the walls.

Once the clean-up had been finished, he paid a visit to Professor Dumbledore in the Hospital Wing, who was looking a lot better.

"Harry!" he smiled when Harry walked over to his bed. "Well done on your victories, though to say I have always believed in you would not be true, but I believed in you when I realized the truth about the prophecy" he said slightly embarrassed.

Harry chuckled. "What is that all about, Professor?"

Dumbledore explained his misinterpretation of the prophecy, it all made sense to Harry.

"I am not going to say I am not angry, but we all make mistakes. And besides, I am just happy that I didn't end up like Violet. Though to call her evil is a bit far..."

"She is not evil as such Harry, she just knows evil, and more of it than you it would seem..." he chortled.

Harry stayed and talked with Dumbledore for a while longer, talking about various things such as Harry's defeat of Voldemort, the possibility of him staying on for seventh year at Hogwarts and various sweets of the Wizarding and Muggle World (Dumbledore vowed to try a confection called Soor Plums).

Harry left Dumbledore when Madame Pomfrey shooed him out so that the headmaster could sleep. He walked up to the common room, where he hoped Ginny would be waiting.

She was, and Harry spent the rest of the evening snuggled up with her on the sofa in front of the fire, where they eventually fell asleep and woke up together the next morning.

In the Great Hall a few days later, there was a feast to celebrate the end of the war and to commemorate those that had died.

Dumbledore, freshly released from the hospital wing, made a speech early on.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here today in high spirits to celebrate the end of the war, that has lasted over sixteen years... It however did not come without sacrifice there have been many over that period of time who have lost their lives fighting for what is right. I would ask that you observe a moments silence for them."

Nobody made a sound as for two minutes those who died were thought about.

"I would also now like to give a vote of thanks to the one who ended the war, by defeating Voldemort and many of his followers; Captain Harry Potter!"

The cheers and applause that came from everyone in the hall was almost deafening. It carried on for well over a minute, whilst Harry received countless handshakes and pats on the back (and many attempts at kisses, though he only got one, from guess who?).

Kingsley Shacklebolt stood after Dumbledore and echoed many of his sentiments. Then he did something Harry was not expecting;

"I would like to take this opportunity as Minister to award the Order of Merlin; Platinum Class to Captain Potter; bearing in mind that only one has received this before – that being Merlin himself!"

Again there was a huge cheer as Harry accepted his award, with a salute to Kingsley.

"And now, in the immortal words of our host here; Nitwit, oddment, blubber, tweak- basically let's have some food this week!"

He grinned as the plates of food came out, jampacked with delicious treats.

It was a night to remember!

Two weeks after the battle, when the various magical locations outside of Hogwarts had been repaired, the train was going to leave. Harry stood at the station with Ginny, hand in hand. Kingsley came up to him as they were waiting;

"Hello Harry, Ginny." He said.

"Hello Minister, what can we do for you?" replied Ginny.

"Well – Harry, I would like to offer you the position of head of the teams that will be rounding up the last few death eaters and also going to the two islands to regain them." He smiled.

Harry was taken aback – surely there was someone else better qualified – Moody or his father? He glanced over at Ginny, who had her head down looking slightly sad.

"Thank you minister." He replied, Ginny looked dejected. "But no thanks. I am taking a break, I want to spend some time with my family, friends and most importantly Ginny." He grinned.

Ginny's face lit up.

"I had a feeling you'd say that" muttered Kingsley, "Very well, have a good summer you two!"

Ginny turned to Harry, beaming; "You did that for me?"

"Well, when the war was on I was always going out on dangerous missions...I would prefer to spend it wherever I may be, with you, Gin" He leant in to kiss her on the lips, as the train arrived.

Harry said his goodbyes to Ginny, though he would see her _every _day in the summer, and went to join his family.

Violet Potter had NOT been in a good mood since the battle, she thought Harry had stolen her limelight and her job. Boy she wasn't going to be pleased when she found out the goblin-made jewellery he had promised Graspscrew was the stuff she had received on her sixth birthday and never wore...

Still he was her brother, and he had to be nice to her. He now looked forward to a normal life with Ginny, and no pressures of war or army.

He had come far. He remembered his Granddad's advice, and he knew that wherever he was that he would be proud of him as would Neville – his brother in every way that mattered.

It was time to live.

**END – Thank You for reading, I really enjoued writing this fic; I apologise for the large delay, apparently new laptop screens are VERY expensive, difficult and time-consuming to attatch....**


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